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Persons with liver cancer disease in Ghana have a new hope with the introduction of a new treatment procedure called the Microwave Tumour Ablation.

According to Dr Benjamin D. Sarkodie, an Interventional Radiologist, liver cancer disease has become more prevalent in Ghana and it is important that people become aware of the new treatment procedures available to them.

Explaining how the procedure is done, he said an imaging physician uses a CT scanner- a high-tech version of an X-ray-to precisely locate a tumor and then guides a specialized needle-like probe into it  to burn the tumor.

Dr Sarkodie who was speaking at this year’s Ghana Society of Interventional Radiology conference held in Accra on Wednesday, August 10, 2016 said the procedure is the most recent development in the field of tumor ablation.

“For years people living with liver cancers were not able to access help, in the past the definite way of managing someone with a liver cancer is to transplant and change the liver which is not readily available in Ghana and people who were treated through surgery can back with relapse”, he said .

Aside the Microwave Tumor Ablation, he said another way liver cancer could be treated is through Transarterial Chemoembolization (TACE), a procedure used to block or slow down the blood supply to a tumour so the cancer cells die.

TACE, he added is used to treat liver tumours that are larger than 5 cm.

The procedures he said provides lower systemic drug levels, less toxicity, and minimal damage to other part of the liver.

Dr Sarkodie advised doctors not to just send their patients home with no hope, but to entreat them to consider other options which are now available in Ghana to improve their quality of life.

The conference which was held under the theme: “Hepatitis, Hepatobiliary Cancers and the Role of Interventional Radiology” saw presentations from other doctors from the Mayo Clinic in the United States who also shared some new treatments for diseases without a patient going through the traditional surgery.

For his part, Dr Victor Asare Bampoe, Deputy Minister of Health said interventional radiology has become a very important facet of healthcare delivery in Ghana.

He said government would continue to add modern equipment to new health facilities that were being put up so that specialists could continue to provide citizens with better health care.

He promised the Ministry’s support for the Society.