Bone and soft tissue tumor embolization/chemoembolization is a medical procedure that involves injecting chemotherapy drugs or other therapeutic agents directly into a tumor’s blood vessels. The procedure is typically performed under imaging guidance (such as CT or MRI) and involves threading a small catheter into the tumor’s blood vessels. Once the catheter is in place, the chemotherapy drugs or other agents are injected, and small particles or beads are also injected to block the blood vessels supplying the tumor.
This causes the tumor to shrink and can also reduce pain and other symptoms such as bleeding.
The procedure is commonly used to treat bone and soft tissue tumors that cannot be removed by surgery, for tumours that are bleeding, preoperative embolisation to reduce vascularity of the tumour.