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Advancements in minimally invasive image-guided liver therapies

M. Burgmans

When thinking about ways to cure cancer, the human brain is tempted to oversimplify. The idea that we will one day find the perfect solution to treat cancer is appealing and conceivable, but unlikely given the historical facts. In the past, doctors (mostly surgeons) believed we might be able to eradicate cancer by radical surgery. Yet, despite the tremendous contribution surgery has made to improve the life-expectancy of cancer patients on a whole, even aggressive surgery provides little chance of a cure in metastatic cancer. For long, people have been hopeful that chemotherapy would provide a definitive solution to metastatic cancer. In the past century, a multitude of clinical trials have been conducted in many different cancer types, often with ever-intensified regimes of combination chemotherapy. We now know that chemotherapy provides a cure in some and palliation in many patients, but there still are many cancer patients that are desperately in need of better therapies. Over recent years we have turned our hopes on targeted molecular therapies, propelled by the successes in unraveling the genetics of oncogenesis. Despite the many promising trials that have been conducted over recent years, there is a lesson to be learned from the past. It is very likely that we will see some spectacular breakthroughs in cancer treatment in the coming years, but it is unlikely that targeted or molecular drugs will solve it all. The battle against cancer will need to be fought along many lines of medical research. Some inventions will have a tremendous impact on the life of cancer patients, whereas other research will only have limited effect. Yet, the only way we stand a chance to defeat cancer is by trying in many different ways. By bringing together the ingenuity and efforts of many, we will change the perspective of cancer patients of the future. This thesis is a contribution, albeit small, to the fight against cancer. This thesis focuses on patients with hepatic malignancies.