New liver cancer treatment introduced in Bangladesh, doctors say

A group of doctors in Bangladesh have “successfully” performed a new procedure for treating liver cancer.

The procedure, transarterial chemoembolization (TACE), is regarded as the best option for those whose cancerous tumour in the liver cannot be removed surgically.

A team led by Associate Professor of Hepatology of the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Mamun-Al-Mahtab Shwapnil carried out the procedure at a private hospital on Friday.

Shwapnil told bdnews24.com that this procedure had been implemented in Bangladesh for the first time.

“This marks a new era in the arena of interventional hepatology in Bangladesh,” he said.

Surgery is not possible for many liver cancer patients due to the size and location of the tumour, particularly when it grows into the blood vessels.

Globally doctors use other methods of treatment as well as TACE.

This is a minimally invasive image-guided treatment in which chemotherapy is delivered directly to the tumour through blood vessels.

“Our (Bangladeshi) patients will now have access to this unique and advanced management of liver cancer at less than half the price of TACE in India,” Shwapnil said.

He expects that this procedure will shortly be available in government hospitals as well, since the doctors in the team work in different government hospitals.

Dr Sheikh Mohammad Noor-E-Alam, Dr Md Ashraful Islam, Dr Syed Abul Foez, Dr Jahangir Sarkar, Dr Ahmed Lutful Moben, Dr Md Abdur Rahim and Dr Foez Ahmed Khandaker were the other members of the team.

Most of them received training on this procedure from the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS) in New Delhi and from Global Health City in Chennai.

Liver cancer ranks third among all cancer deaths in Bangladesh.

Chronic hepatitis B and C virus infections are blamed as the main reasons for liver cancer in Bangladesh.

Most of them are diagnosed in the advanced stage, when surgery is no longer possible, Shwapnil said.