Liver Cancer

TUESDAY, Jan. 20 (HealthDay News) -- A minimally invasive therapy that uses beads soaked with anti-cancer agents has been successful at halting liver tumors, according to new studies. Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) attacks liver tumors on two fronts. Microspheres, or beads, combined with cancer-killing chemotherapeutic agents are delivered to the blood vessel feeding the tumor. While the chemo attacks the cancer, the microspheres get stuck in the vessels and choke off the blood supply to the tumor -- a process called...

NEW YORK — Only half of people in the United States who have ever been infected with hepatitis C get proper testing for the liver-destroying disease, U.S. health officials said on Tuesday. Proper testing is a two-step process in which people who have antibodies get referred for a second more sophisticated test to detect the virus. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, many people who have taken a blood test showing they have been infected with the virus do not get the necessary...

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 15 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers have identified a new genetic signature that may predict whether a liver tumor is likely to recur, according to a new study. Unlike other such signatures that have been identified for other cancers, this one has something of a flourish: It is hidden not within the tumor itself, but in the normal cells that surround it -- and which, by inference, remain in the body following surgery. The findings potentially open the door to new surveillance, treatment, and intervention...

Adventurous, meticulous and intensely curious about the world and its people, Dr. R. Palmer Beasley, epidemiologist and infectious-disease expert, used those skills to discover the link between the hepatitis B virus and liver cancer — proof that a virus could cause a human cancer, and a finding that ultimately led to vaccinations that saved hundreds of thousands of lives. Dr. Beasley, a former University of Washington faculty member and dean of the University of Texas School of Public Health, died Aug. 25 at his home in...

TUESDAY, April 8 (HealthDay News) -- By combining a special type of chemotherapy (TACE) with another treatment called radiofrequency ablation (RFA), Chinese researchers boosted the survival of people with advanced liver cancer by an average of 13 to 15 months compared to either treatment alone. "Our study demonstrates that combination therapy with TACE and RFA was an effective and safe treatment that may improve long-term survival for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma larger than three centimeters," said Dr. Bao-Quan Cheng, from...

THURSDAY, June 5 (HealthDay News) -- Diabetes doubles the risk of liver cancer in patients with chronic hepatitis C with advanced fibrosis, or cirrhosis, a Dutch study reports. Researchers at the Erasmus MC University Medical Center in Rotterdam analyzed data on 541 European and Canadian patients with chronic hepatitis C with advanced cirrhosis. Of those patients, 85 had diabetes. Patients with more severe fibrosis were more likely to have diabetes. "The prevalence of diabetes mellitus was 10.5...

WEDNESDAY, July 23 (HealthDay News) -- The drug Nexavar can prolong the lives of people with liver cancer by an average of three months, new research shows. "The results unequivocally showed that sorafenib (Nexavar) increased the survival of patients with a more than 30 percent reduction in the likelihood to die at any time point during follow-up," said study senior author Dr. Jordi Bruix, a senior consultant in the liver unit of the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona. "These results identify sorafenib as the first agent...

Caroline Macomber, 79, a watercolorist who had served the past 20 years on the board of the Phillips Collection art museum in the District, died Jan. 27 at her home in Washington. She had complications from liver cancer. The death was confirmed by her daughter Janet Williamson. Caroline Morgan was born in New York City and was a direct descendent of the Morgan banking family. She was a 1954 cum laude graduate of Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania and the next year married John D....

FRIDAY, Dec. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Many patients with liver cancer who don't meet criteria used to select transplant patients could actually be good candidates for liver transplantation, according to an Italian study. The Milan criteria specifies that liver cancer patients with a single tumor of 5 centimeters or less in diameter, or three or fewer tumors, each no more than 3 cm in diameter and with no macrovascular invasion, can expect an excellent outcome after liver transplantation, with only a 10 percent...

Max G. Meadows, 87, who retired as a marketing representative from Washington Gas in 1985, died June 15 at his home in Vienna. He had liver cancer. He started working for the company in 1946 in the appliance service department. Max Grover Meadows was born in Elkton, Va., a community near Harrisonburg. He served as a Navy pilot in World War II. Survivors include his wife of 59 years, Evelyn Krigosky Meadows of Vienna; three children, Ellen Shell of Winchester, Va., Janet Fearson of Vienna and Kerry Meadows of Ashburn; a sister, Emily...

Renato W. Beghe, a senior judge with the U.S. Tax Court, died July 7 at his home in Washington. He was 79. He had liver cancer, said his daughter Francesca Beghe Green. Mr. Beghe was a tax lawyer in New York for more than 35 years before he was appointed to the U.S. Tax Court by then-President George H.W. Bush in 1991. As a Tax Court judge, he tried and adjudicated cases between taxpayers and the Internal Revenue Service. During his two decades as a judge, he wrote more than 200 opinions.

The number of people with cancer is likely to surge by more than ­­75 percent across the world by 2030, with particularly sharp rises in poor countries as they adopt unhealthy "Westernized" lifestyles, a study said last week. Many developing countries were expected to see a rise in living standards in coming decades, said the paper from the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer. But those advances could come at a cost: an increase in breast, prostate and colorectal cancer linked to poor...

The federal government Friday called for all baby boomers to be tested for hepatitis C, which kills more Americans each year than AIDS and is the leading reason for liver transplants. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made the recommendation to find hundreds of thousands of people who have the infection, which greatly increases their chances of developing cirrhosis and liver cancer, but don't know it. The hepatitis C virus is transmitted by blood, usually through intravenous drug use or...

Freddie Solomon, 59, a former Miami Dolphins and San Francisco 49ers wide receiver who became known as "Fabulous Freddie" and played on two Super Bowl championship teams, died Feb. 13 near his home in Tampa. The 49ers announced his death. News reports said he had colon and liver cancer. Mr. Solomon had an 11-year NFL career and played for the 49ers when the team won the Super Bowl in 1982 and 1985. The Dolphins selected Mr. Solomon in the second round of the 1975 draft out of the University of Tampa.

Caroline Macomber, 79, a watercolorist who had served the past 20 years on the board of the Phillips Collection art museum in the District, died Jan. 27 at her home in Washington. She had complications from liver cancer. The death was confirmed by her daughter Janet Williamson. Caroline Morgan was born in New York City and was a direct descendent of the Morgan banking family. She was a 1954 cum laude graduate of Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania and the next year married John D....

Vincent R. DeFrancesco information technology specialist Vincent R. DeFrancesco, 57, an information technology specialist with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., died Dec. 8 at his home in Falls Church. He had liver cancer, his sister Donna Dilley said. Vincent Robert DeFrancesco was born in New York City and served in the Air Force before settling in the Washington region in 1981. He worked for a technology company before joining the FDIC more than 20 years ago. Survivors include four sisters...

Vincent R. DeFrancesco information technology specialist Vincent R. DeFrancesco, 57, an information technology specialist with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., died Dec. 8 at his home in Falls Church. He had liver cancer, his sister Donna Dilley said. Vincent Robert DeFrancesco was born in New York City and served in the Air Force before settling in the Washington region in 1981. He worked for a technology company before joining the FDIC more than 20 years ago. Survivors include four sisters...

Brian McDonald, 34, who worked as a safety inspector at R.E. Lee Electric Co. in Newington, Va., died April 19 at his mother's home in Springfield. He had liver cancer. Mr. McDonald was born in Washington and graduated from Paul VI Catholic High School in Fairfax City in 1995. He received an associate's degree from Northern Virginia Community College in 1999 and graduated from George Mason University in 2004. Survivors include his wife of six years, Michelle Susan Marraine McDonald, and their daughter, Adrianna, both of Woodbridge; and his...

Donald A. Kelly, 74, who retired from the CIA in 1987 after 28 years as a communications officer, died Dec. 22 at the home of his daughter in Laytonsville, Md. He had liver cancer. The death was confirmed by his son, Derek A. Kelly. Donald Arthur Kelly was born in Queens. He joined the CIA in 1959 after four years in the Air Force. He was a cryptographic equipment specialist for several agency projects, and he received the Intelligence Commendation Medal. A former Rockville resident, he relocated to Florida in 1987 and lived in Bradenton...

Max G. Meadows, 87, who retired as a marketing representative from Washington Gas in 1985, died June 15 at his home in Vienna. He had liver cancer. He started working for the company in 1946 in the appliance service department. Max Grover Meadows was born in Elkton, Va., a community near Harrisonburg. He served as a Navy pilot in World War II. Survivors include his wife of 59 years, Evelyn Krigosky Meadows of Vienna; three children, Ellen Shell of Winchester, Va., Janet Fearson of Vienna and Kerry Meadows of Ashburn; a sister, Emily...