Jon Bell (Manchester, UK) outlines the importance of standardisation of selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT) and how this rests on an advanced understanding of personalised dosimetry to achieve optimal outcomes for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. “So interventional radiologists, wherever they work, will be treating the same patients in the same way. […] The standardisation is crucial,” he says.
“The biggest thing we have seen in the past few weeks is the new Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) classification, and the importance of seeing radioembolization there for the very first time, and it is there because of LEGACY data,” he says, noting that the dosimetry is a core component of this. It is only when the whole team is familiar with dosimetry that “we going to get the best outcomes for our patients and it is all about patient care at the end of the day,” comments Bell. In parallel, in the UK, the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) multiple technology appraisal guidance has granted SIRT reimbursement leading to the treatment gaining ground and a changed landscape.
“We now have great opportunity where we can educate, influence interventional radiologists to go out and promote the therapy and really embed it in the patient pathway,” he says at the British Society of Interventional Radiology (BSIR) Annual Scientific Meeting 2021 (8–10 December, Glasgow, UK).
