How is EHE treated?

How is EHE treated?

EHE is so rare that there aren’t standard treatment guidelines. Instead, you’ll likely work with several specialists with experience in treating sarcomas. Your care team may include a cancer specialist (surgical oncologist), an imaging specialist (radiologist) and other specialists with expertise in treating a specific organ or body system (such as an orthopedic surgeon, liver transplant specialist, pathologist, etc.), among others.

The treatment you receive depends on various factors, including the tumor’s size, location, how many tumors you have and whether cancer has spread. Treatments may include:

• Watchful waiting: Your provider may monitor your cancer closely but avoid direct treatments if potential treatment side effects outweigh the benefits. A “wait and see” approach is often best when EHE is first detected if you’re not experiencing symptoms and you’re not a good candidate for surgery. Sometimes, these tumors shrink without treatment. In other instances, they grow slowly over many years. If your cancer worsens, your provider may recommend a different approach.
• Surgery: Surgery is the most common treatment for cases of EHE involving a single tumor. During the procedure, your provider will remove the tumor and some surrounding healthy tissue to ensure no cancer cells remain.
• Vascular embolization: Your provider may cut off the blood supply to your tumor, either as a standalone procedure or to shrink a tumor before surgery. This procedure is called embolization. Types of embolization your provider may recommend for EHE include transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) and radioembolization.
• Targeted therapy: Targeted therapy is the most commonly used treatment for advanced EHE. This kind of treatment uses drugs that prevent tumors from receiving the nutrients and oxygen they need to grow.
• Radiation therapy: Your provider may recommend radiation treatment following surgery to kill any remaining cancer cells. Radiation therapy may be the primary treatment if you’re not a good candidate for surgery. It can also help with symptom relief. Radiation therapy uses targeted energy beams to destroy cancer cells.
• Chemotherapy: Chemotherapy isn’t a common treatment for EHE. Still, your provider may recommend chemotherapy combined with other treatments if your cancer is more advanced. Chemotherapy uses drugs to destroy cancer cells. More research is needed to assess the potential uses of chemotherapy for EHE treatment.
• Organ transplant: Your provider may recommend an organ transplant (most commonly a liver transplant with EHE) if you have multiple tumors impacting a major organ.

Research on EHE is ongoing, and new treatments are constantly tested in clinical trials. Depending on the severity of your cancer, your provider may recommend you participate in a clinical trial.