This image is a CT scan of a tumor in the liver, before and after chemotherapy. The tumor had been reduced greatly as you can see the difference in size between the image on the right and the image on the left. On the other hand, the tumor is not completely gone – that is because this is an example of neoadjuvant chemotherapy where the tumor is shrunk to be easier to operate on. Despite this, you can also notice that the liver had ‘grown’ ,this is not as a result to chemotherapy – it is due to portal vein embolization. Both chemotherapy and portal vein embolization were needed prior to the operation. Chemotherapy reduced the size of the tumor immensely while the portal vein embolization had increased the size of the liver. In this case, chemotherapy was certainly helpful – the large mass that was once there had been removed because this treatment had made it easier to do so.
This is a PET scan of a woman who had gone through chemotherapy because she had leukemia. The picture on the left shows that the leukemia that is present in her bone marrow, however to an extreme level as shown in the red and green colours. On the other hand, in the picture to the right, which is after chemotherapy, the leukemia in her bone marrow still persisted; it just wasn’t as severe as it was before. In this case, chemotherapy was not as useful as we would have thought. The leukemia is still present and it can easily grow!
