For Fernando Rodríguez-Maribona, a 56-year-old telecommunications engineer based in Madrid, sport has always been central to his life. Whether playing tennis with his daughters, cycling through the mountains or skiing in winter, “sport is a key pillar in my life,” he says. “It allows me to be active and also socialise with my family.”
But in April 2024, Fernando didn’t feel so fit and well. “I felt a bit strange, slightly tired, and I had some pain at my abdominal area,” Fernando recalls. “When I bent over to tie my shoes, the pain was there. It was not a sharp pain, but it was constant.” Concerned, he visited his doctor, who did an ultrasound and sent him to the hospital for a full diagnostic test.
Within a week, tests confirmed that Fernando had intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, a type of cancer that forms in the small bile ducts of the liver. The cancer was in 60% of his liver. “The worst moment is when you receive the news that you have cancer because you know that it is a serious illness and that you will need to fight a lot,” Fernando recalls.
Treating intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma step by step
An engineer by profession, Fernando approached his diagnosis methodically. “I decided to manage it as a project, in which there is always a next phase, looking for the final objective,” he says. “In my case, that final objective was to have surgery to remove the tumour”.
For surgery to be possible, Fernando’s doctors designed a treatment plan to first shrink the cancer, combining chemotherapy, immunotherapy and radioembolisation with TheraSphere™ Y-90 Glass Microspheres.
The treatment with TheraSphere was a one-off procedure. It incorporated personalised tumour dosing to create the optimal balance of delivering an effective radiation dose to destroy the cancer cells, yet minimise radiation exposure to healthy tissue. Studies have shown that this personalised dosing, known as dosimetry, can double survival outcomes for patients with primary liver cancer. 1
“The treatment with TheraSphere was not a painful procedure,” Fernando says. “The treatment was given via a catheter inserted into my leg. I did have to stay still on the operation table for about three hours, but I came home the same day, and the next day I felt normal.”
From treatment to surgery - and back on the tennis courts
Fernando and his daughter
The treatment plan combining chemotherapy, immunotherapy and TheraSphere worked. Fernando’s tumour shrank, and his healthy liver grew enough to enable him to have surgery.
“TheraSphere was the perfect complement to the chemotherapy and immunotherapy because it achieved the final objective — to go to surgery with success,” he says. “It allowed me to come back to normal life practising sport and enjoying my family in a very short time.”
For his daughter Elena, 22, the journey has been emotional. “Being able to play tennis with my dad again is something I can’t even describe because sometimes I felt that maybe that wasn’t going to happen anymore,” she says. “Now being able to go and play tennis with him, it’s like a reward after all that happened.”
Find out more about Fernando's treatment with TheraSphere by watching this video:
What is TheraSphere and how does it work?
TheraSphere is a type of selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT) consisting of radioactive yttrium-90 (Y-90) glass microspheres. These microspheres are injected into an artery that supplies the liver, via a catheter in the leg, which lodge in the liver’s capillaries in and around the tumour, delivering radiation that kills the cancer cells. The treatment is delivered directly to tumours, resulting in an increased response while preserving surrounding healthy tissue. Unlike systemic therapy for advanced liver cancer, which is given over a long period of time and can have persistent side effects, TheraSphere is a locally targeted one-off treatment. Read more about how TheraSphere works here: Marking 20 years of innovation in liver cancer treatment
