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Interventional radiologists (IRs) provide patients with primary and secondary liver cancer with high-quality, high-impact care in a more cost-efficient way than other specialties, according to a study published online in the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology.

The study reviewed Medicare data from 2016–2021 covering approximately 110,000 patients per year. The authors found that IRs treated nearly 51% of Medicare patients with liver cancer, with the volume increasing over time as routine oncologic care increasingly relies on IR for essential support services (such as image-guided biopsy, venous access and drainage) and for therapeutic solutions, such as percutaneous ablation and transarterial therapies.

"Liver cancer demands complex, multidisciplinary care, and IRs have a central and transformative role to play on this care team," said SIR Secretary Nishita Kothary, M.D., FSIR, an interventional radiologist and professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Kothary was co-author of the paper.

IRs are increasingly specializing in oncology and delivering therapeutic treatments for the cancer itself, such as transarterial chemoembolization (TACE), transarterial radioembolization (TARE) and percutaneous thermal and nonthermal ablation.

"IOs harness minimally invasive, image-guided techniques to deliver targeted therapies that can be curative, adjunct to systemic therapies, or even serve as a bridge to organ transplantation," said Kothary.

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