Riad Salem (Chicago, USA) tells Interventional News at the SIR annual scientific meeting that removing a key step—the MAA scan to determine lung shunting—in a select subset of patients undergoing multistep Y-90 procedure can bring down the skin-to-treatment time to around 60 minutes.
Salem, who delivered the Honorary Lecture at the recent GEST 2019 meeting, clarifies that it would be premature to entirely eliminate the MAA scan for primary liver cancer patients, in whom, he says, the scan is “mandatory” to prevent shunting to the lung.
However, in UNOS stage 1 and stage 2 transplant patients with limited disease, where radiation segmentectomy is indicated, the procedure can be shortened considerably.
