Scientists have developed a procedure which could prolong the
lives of people with primary or secondary liver tumors.
The procedure developed by Delcath Systems, the New York-based
company, allows massive doses of chemotherapy drugs to reach the
liver and kill the cancer cells without poisoning the rest of the
body during chemotherapy by the way of temporarily diverting blood
leaving the liver, science magazine New Scientist reported
Friday.
The regime involves injecting the drug straight into the liver,
while using catheters and balloons to divert the blood leaving it
and this blood is then filtered to remove most of the drug.
The procedure uses catheters threaded through blood vessels in
the thighs and neck, one of which delivers the drug into the
hepatic artery, which supplies the liver while the inferior vena
cava, which normally drains the liver, is blocked by a pair of
balloons.
To maintain circulation through the liver, a tube runs through
one of these balloons. Blood leaving the liver is forced into this
tube and out of the body instead of heading for the heart. This
blood is then passed through a filter that removes most of the
drug, before being returned to the body through the jugular
vein.
The drug is infused for about 30 minutes, and blood leaving the
liver is filtered for an hour.
In an early trial on 13 patients, tumors disappeared or shrank
by more than half in 10 of the patients within five weeks of their
being given the new treatment, who survived for an average of two
years.
Normally around 90 percent of people with inoperable secondary
liver tumors die within eight months of being diagnosed.
The scientists of Delcath Systems have already begun a larger
trial in collaboration with a team from the U.S. National Cancer
Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.
(Xinhua News Agency September 29, 2007)