Grand River Hospital offers advanced treatments for local patients with liver tumours

Local patients seeking treatment for liver tumours won’t have to travel as far, thanks to Grand River Hospital.

Director of Communications Mark Karjaluoto says they now have two new treatments that they’ll be able to provide at their Kitchener Campus.

“The first one is called radio frequency ablation, which uses radio frequency energy to basically superheat a tumour and destroy it. The second is transarterial chemoembolization, which uses medical imaging to plug arteries that go into a tumour to choke off the blood supply, and then use chemotherapy drugs to help destroy it.”

Before the addition of these treatments, local patients had to travel to London, Hamilton, or Toronto to get them.

The procedures will enhance the hospital’s role in our province as one of nine centres of excellence in liver and pancreatic surgery.

Karjaluoto says Cancer Care Ontario and generous donors are to thank for providing operating funding for the procedures.