Patients given hope with new TheraSphere cancer treatment



MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- A local man who built a multimedia empire from the ground up is now broadcasting the benefits of a relatively new cancer treatment.

For more than 50 years, Vic Eliason has been a driving force behind VCY America, a television and radio empire offering around-the-clock Christian programming to stations across the country and on the internet.

"In 1959 we came here to Milwaukee to work with teenagers and it was teenagers that came up with the idea of starting a Christian radio program and that radio program developed into what we have today," explained Eliason.

Eliason spoke with FOX6 to give a message of hope about a revolutionary cancer treatment that helped with two tumors growing on his liver after his prostate cancer spread.

After undergoing rounds of radiation, drugs and cryosurgery, a doctor recommended Eliason give TheraSphere a try.

"The introduction of little glass beads, one-third the diameter of a human hair, and there will be millions of them, literally," said Dr. Eric Hohenwalter with Froedtert Hospital.

The microscopic, radioactive, glass beads are inserted through a patient's catheter -- then make their way directly into tumors.

"You can deliver this radiation very precisely to the tumors. It's very high dose radiation yet we can spare the surrounding tissues," Dr. Hohenwalter explained.

Eliason underwent the procedure last February and says one tumor is now completely gone.

"The larger one is continuing to shrink and they said it was over half diminished in size," said Eliason.

Dr. Hohenwalter says the treatment has been around for about 10 years and Froedtert was one of the first hospitals to utilize it.