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PHILADELPHIA - Primary liver cancer is on the rise worldwide, largely due to an increase in hepatitis C infections and chronic liver disease. Liver cancer is also hard to treat - it kills 750,000 people a year worldwide, making it the second deadliest type of cancer behind lung cancer. Current treatments include a targeted radiation therapy delivered with the help of radiation-emitting glass beads. New research shows that this treatment can be augmented by infusing microbubbles - small gas bubbles surrounded by a lipid shell - into the liver, and popping those bubbles by ultrasound, in a first-in-human pilot clinical trial of the combination. The findings of this study were published in