Advances in cancer surgery and chemotherapy are helping Ohio State patients recover faster and avoid many side effects of traditional treatments. At Ohio State, many of the most impactful innovations involving liver, bile duct and pancreatic cancer treatments include minimally invasive surgical techniques, as well as a new method to directly infuse chemotherapy into liver cancer tumors. “I’m never satisfied with the status quo. I’m always looking to move the needle, how can we advance,” says Allan Tsung, MD, the OSUCCC – James director of surgical oncology and a specialist in liver, bile duct and pancreatic cancer. Tsung goes in-depth on the latest advances in cancer surgery at Ohio State on our Cancer-Free World Podcast. Listen via the video player above or on SoundCloud. Tsung’s passion stems in large part from the experience of his father, a physician and radiation oncologist who was diagnosed with metastatic colorectal cancer that spread to his liver when Tsung was in middle school. “Back then, there were not many treatments available, especially surgery for liver cancer, which was very high risk,” Tsung says. “They couldn’t remove his liver tumors, and he passed away.” In response, Tsung has taken a leading role in the work to increase options for treating liver, bile duct and pancreatic cancers. One of those advances, minimally invasive surgery, utilizes small incisions that reduce the risk of complications and allow patients to spend less time in hospitals and begin radiation and chemotherapy treatments sooner. The liver is one of the most common destinations for metastatic cancers. For some patients whose tumors are too invasive to safely remove surgically, Tsung and his colleagues can provide quality treatment via a new method of chemotherapy administration. “We can now directly infuse chemotherapy into the liver with minimal side effects,” Tsung says of the technique, in which a hepatic artery infusion pump is placed near the liver of a patient, allowing a two-week dose of chemotherapy to be sent into the liver on a continuous basis. “We never want the pump to go dry, so then we start a two-week cycle with a saline solution, and then we start the two-week chemotherapy cycle again.” Because the chemotherapy is delivered only to the liver, it can be more effective and cause comparatively few side effects. Studies have shown that this method can extend the life of patients whose cancers have metastasized to the liver.