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Heated Chemotherapy May Improve Cancer Treatment
BOSTON —Treating abdominal cancers is unusually complicated. Unlike most types of cancers that spread inside internal organs, abdominal cancers tend to grow on the outside of them, said Dr. Martin D. Goodman, a surgical oncologist at Tufts Medical Center in Boston.
So traditional chemotherapy injected intravenously often fails to penetrate tumors in the belly and offers short survival rates for patients, he said.
But a little-used procedure in this country might offer hope for some, said Goodman.
For 70 percent of patients with non-aggressive tumors, heated chemotherapy can turn a 5-year prognosis into a 10- or 15-year one, Goodman said.
During the procedure, visible tumors are removed in surgery before a surgeon uses a machine to pump two liters of high-dose chemotherapy drugs into the belly, he said.
The liquid drug is heated to about 108 degrees while in the operating room. It cooks the remaining cancer cells for about 90 minutes, as the surgeon jiggles the belly with his hands to circulate it, Goodman said.
“You’re basically putting the chemotherapy right onto the cancer cells,” Goodman said.
by: Jessica Scarpati
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