VALPARAISO – Porter is the only hospital in Northwest Indiana offering a new treatment option for patients with inoperable liver cancer, the Selective Internal Radiation Therapy procedure.

            “SIRT is suitable for patients who have liver tumors where the liver is the only site or the major site of disease,” said Dr. Amjad Alkadri, an interventional radiologist. “Before SIRT can be offered as a treatment option for patients, there are a number of factors that have to be considered. Most importantly, you need to have a sufficiently healthy liver that is working satisfactorily, usually determined by a simple blood test.”

            SIRT is considered a safer and more effective way of using radiation. The American Cancer Society says some 150,000 Americans are diagnosed with colorectal cancer every year, with 60 percent seeing it spread to their liver where most tumors cannot be surgically removed.