Question about New Procedure – Sir-spheres
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Diane,
I had radioembolization at Mayo, but I had the Therasperes instead of Sir-spheres. They use both, but they are extremely similar. You can pull up my thread and read my experience. I’m about 2 months post procedure now. There were some difficulties with it, but I’m still hopefull it was effective. I will know when I have my followup scan in a few weeks.
I had insurance pre-approve the treatment which was a tricky process. I still went in to the procedure not know exactly what would be my portion of the expense. The total treatment, including planning angiogram, the spheres, and the treatment itself plus all of the other testing was around $95,000.00 at Mayo. It was not cheap. But luckily insurance did pay for most of it for me.
Best of luck to you.
Rick
Diane:
I was a candidate for radioembolization (radiation therapy) using microspheres, scheduled at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis in August, 2010. Turned out that my liver’s left lobe was too atrophied to handle the sphere insertion, after all, so I ended up in Sterotactic radiotherapy instead.
When initially evaluated, I had Blue Cross/Shield (Anthem) insurance–and they were apparently going to cover it for one of the two available types of microspheres–the sir spheres were one of the two options, I remember. I do not know which the insurance would pay for, and which of the two they would not. But the docs said they would pay for one of them. Hope this helps.
God bless you and yours.
-Tom
Diane….Sir-Sphere is a type of Internal Radiation Therapy, as is Theraspere, SIR-Sphere, Yttrium-90 Microsphere Radioembolization. Microscopic beads are delivered to the tumor through the blood supply via the hepatic artery. I believe that Aetna insurance covers this procedure though, I don’t know whether other insurance companies have followed suit. We have some postings regarding this procedure. You may find the threads by using the “google” search, top, right hand side of page. I am happy to hear that another option for treatment has been offered to you and am hoping for someone else to chime in and share his/her experience with us. Diane, you may have to appeal the denial of your insurance company. If so, then you might ask the physicians at the Mayo Clinic to help you out with this. Please, keep us posted and good luck.
Best wishes,
MarionHas anyone had or done any research on a procedure called Sir-spheres? I found it via a link on the website liver tumors.org. The website is called http://www.sirtex.com.
I’ve been evaluated at Mayo Clinic and they believe I am a candidate for the procedure. One of the problems is that the insurance may not cover the procedure and it’s very expensive.
Please let me know if you have any info.
Thank you.
Diane – diagnosed April 2009 with cholangiocarcinoma
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