Liz's Story: Cancer Patient Finds Hope After SIRT Procedure

Liz Wilson Greer did not have many treatment options for her rare tissue cancer. Learn how she found hope through a minimally invasive, image-guided procedure targeting her liver tumors.

Ten years ago, doctors told Liz Wilson Greer they thought a uterine fibroid was causing her digestion issues. They advised her to have an emergency hysterectomy, but something didn’t feel right to her about the diagnosis. She refused the hysterectomy. “It took about six weeks for them to figure out what it was, and it turned out to be a rare form of sarcoma,” she says.

Almost no liver surgeon wanted to operate on Liz because of the high number of tumors, leaving Liz with few treatment options, so she looked for other opinions at Massachusetts General Hospital. “I chose Mass General because they had such a great team and it felt as if everything was cohesive.”

Minimally Invasive Procedure Offers Hope

At Mass General Interventional Radiology, Liz found a minimally invasive, image-guided treatment option. Chief of Interventional Radiology Sanjeeva Kalva, MBBS collaborated with her oncology team and recommended she undergo a SIRT procedure. As only the second person with her type of cancer in the United States to have SIRT done, Liz did her research. “I read as much as I could about SIRT and Y-90 before I came to see Dr. Kalva. I faxed him a list of 27 questions. He addressed every one of those patiently,” she says.

Dr. Kalva released radioactive beads into the blood vessels connecting to Liz’s liver tumors. A few months after the minimally invasive, image-guided procedure, her tumors showed up as necrotic. She now looks and feels healthy and says, “It’s given me a shot that I didn’t really have at that point. [Dr. Kalva] just gave me hope and hope for a cancer patient is really important.”