A 'ONE-SHOT' liver cancer treatment has now been made available in Bristol, and a 76-year-old Frome man was one of the first five patients to receive it.

University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust is the first in the South West to offer this treatment, a non-invasive procedure which avoids surgery and extensive chemotherapy. 

Patients with liver cancer not suitable for transplant or surgical resection are being treated at Bristol Royal Infirmary with a far less invasive procedure, not currently being carried out anywhere else in the South West, known as Selective Internal Radiation Therapy (SIRT).

Raymond Nicholson, 76, who lives in Frome with his partner, had Selective Internal Radiation Therapy in 2024.

He said: “I was offered the new treatment, and my immediate reaction was to go for it. I know some people who have had chemotherapy and it made them so sick.

"I felt fine before the procedure, and afterwards although I was a little tired, I mostly feel fine.

“For me it is about quality of life, and this treatment has certainly given me that.”

In collaboration with University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, and North Bristol NHS Trust, the NICE recommended treatment has now been administered to five patients in the South West already. 

The patients who have received this treatment so far, all have underlying health conditions which meant they could not have the tumour removed surgically.

Selective Internal Radiation Therapy (SIRT), uses radioactive beads which are injected into the tumour via an artery through a pinhole incision in the groin. The radioactive beads stick permanently to the liver tumour, giving off radiation which damages the cancer cell.

An angiogram test helps clinicians determine where the beads should go based on the blood supply to the liver.  The beads only affect the cells they are closest to and lose their radioactivity in a few days.

SIRTs is one of several services NBT and UHBW provide together. The delivery of seamless, high-quality, equitable and sustainable care is the shared vision of both NBT and UHBW and at the heart of the first Joint Clinical Strategy between the two Trusts.

Twelve centres in the UK were originally commissioned to deliver SIRTs. Until recently patients from Bristol had to travel to Oxford for the treatment.

However, NICE recommended 12 more centres offer the treatment, and the Department of Radiology is the first in the South West to do so.

Professor Mark Callaway, Consultant Radiologist said: “This is a major achievement, and requires a multidisciplinary approach including interventional radiologists, physicists, nuclear medicine physicians, specialist radiographers and interventional nurses.”

The one-shot treatment has already extended the life of one Bristol patient by several years and there are high hopes for the other patients who have received the treatment.

The first patient to receive the treatment in Bristol, who had part of their liver removed in 2018 following a liver cancer diagnosis in 2017 said the treatment was preferable to the major surgery they had the first time.

“As far as I am concerned, I am very happy with the procedure. After my operation I had in 2018 I spent around a week in hospital. While I did think that procedure was successful, we obviously didn’t get every bit of the cancer.

“Since the SIRTs I have been able to keep fit, eat well and I feel really good in myself.”