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A revolutionary treatment for liver cancer which works by isolating the organ from the rest of the body and ‘bathing’ it in chemotherapy is effective in almost 90 per cent of patients, greatly improving survival rates.
The procedure, pioneered in the UK by Dr Brian Stedman, a consultant interventional radiologist at University Hospital Southampton, involves using two small balloons to divert blood past the liver for an hour while delivering drugs directly in to the organ.
Known as chemosaturation therapy or percutaneous hepatic perfusion (PHP), the technique allows doctors to administer much larger doses of drug than patients would receive with standard chemotherapy as it does not enter the bloodstream and cause unnecessary damage to healthy parts of the body.
Once the drug has been delivered, blood from the liver is drained from the patient and processed through a filtration machine to reduce toxicity before being returned to the patient via the jugular vein.
Dr Stedman and his colleagues have now performed 300 procedures in 100 patients whose form of eye cancer known as ocular melanoma had spread to the liver, called liver metastases.
Ocular melanoma is the most common eye cancer in adults and around 50 per cent develop a secondary cancer – in the liver in more than 85 per cent – with limited treatment options and just 10 per cent to 25 per cent of patients surviving for a year after their diagnosis.
Currently available treatments, which include standard chemotherapy and even a new immunotherapy drug, have poor response rates, with less than 20 per cent of patients benefiting from improved disease control and increased survival.
In a study published in the journal Melanoma Research, Dr Stedman and colleagues found liver cancers were controlled in 88.9 per cent of patients who had received chemosaturation therapy, with 62 per cent of patients surviving for a year and 30 per cent after two years.
The average length of survival in those studied was 15 months but, in some cases, ongoing cycles of chemosaturation therapy have almost removed patients’ cancers completely.
However, despite being incorporated into the available treatment options by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) last year, there is not currently an NHS commissioned service.
This leaves many patients having to self-fund the treatment or seek charitable grants from organisations such as charity OcuMel UK, which has provided more than £100k for patients’ treatments over the past year alone.
“When we first trialled this treatment on two patients in 2012 I said that the development would be a landmark moment in cancer care and it really has proved to be given these results,” said Dr Stedman, who is co-founder of PLANETS Cancer Charity, which has helped fund research into the use of chemosaturation therapy.
“This treatment allows us to cut off an organ from the body for 60 minutes, soak it in a high dose of drug and then filter the blood almost completely clean before returning it and its arrival was much-needed.
“The outlook for patients specifically suffering from cancer which has spread to the liver has been notoriously poor because the effect of standard chemotherapy is limited by the unwanted damage the drug causes to the rest of the body.
“Chemosaturation therapy offers the possibility of repeat intervention and these results demonstrate it offers excellent short and medium-term disease control with improved survival.
“With such a large series of results, it also proves the safety of the system, with patients feeling back to normal within days and maintaining an excellent quality of life during treatment by avoiding many of the unwanted side effects of standard chemotherapy.
“This novel approach demonstrates the ability of science and technology to harness the power of imaging and target cancer treatment to the areas in which treatment is needed but avoid the unwanted damage caused by conventional chemotherapy or surgery on normal tissue.”
PLANETS Cancer Charity helps patients with pancreatic, liver, colorectal, abdominal and neuroendocrine cancer by funding patient support groups, innovative treatments and research.
Dr Stedman and his team are now hoping to launch further studies, funded by PLANETS, using chemosaturation therapy to treat other cancers affecting the liver – and potentially cancers in other parts of the body.
Study co-author Neil Pearce, a consultant hepatobiliary surgeon and co-founder of PLANETS, said: “While we currently only have evidence for this treatment in liver cancer which has spread from the eye, these results may now open the door for future studies with other difficult to treat cancers affecting the liver and we are exploring the potential new research trials.
“There has also been some limited research and case reports in other cancers – including bowel, breast, pancreatic and neuroendocrine – from international centres which suggest potential benefit but would need to be more formally assessed in large clinical trials.
“But these findings show there is real potential for this treatment to extend to more common cancers which is very exciting.”
READ ABOUT HOW FUNDS ARE USED
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PLANETS Funds New Wellbeing Room for Liver Ward at UHS
PLANETS funds new wellbeing room for liver patients at University Hospital Southampton A new wellbeing room funded by PLANETS Cancer Charity has been opened for patients with liver diseases at University Hospital Southampton. The facility, located on the gastroenterology and hepatology ward, provides a quiet space for patients and a place for private conversations which […]
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PLANETS funds novel 3D printed livers to aid complex surgery
Surgeons in Southampton are the first in the UK to begin using 3D printed models of patients’ livers to help them perform a complex cancer operation. Converting the data available from CT and MRI scans of patients with hilar cholangiocarcinoma – a type of bile duct cancer – into 3D models will enable better planning […]
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PLANETS Charity Welcome Coach Alison Bailey to their Support Team
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PLANETS completes £1 million fundraising campaign to purchase pioneering radiotherapy machine
PLANETS has thanked its supporters after completing a £1 million fundraising campaign and making the final payment for a pioneering radiotherapy machine. PLANETS Cancer Charity has been fundraising for the past six years to fully purchase Mobetron, a revolutionary mobile device which delivers radiotherapy during surgery – known as intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT). When the charity […]
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PLANETS Receive £10,000 Grant from The Hospital Saturday Fund
Thank you to John Greenwood, Trustee of the The Hospital Saturday Fund, for visiting us on Monday and bringing this incredible grant of £10,000 to support our IORT (Intra Operative Radiotherapy) machine. This will enable us to continue delivering this lifesaving treatment at University Hospital Southampton – the only centre in the UK currently offering […]
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PLANETS Fund ‘New View’ Psychotherapy Course for NET Patients
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Head and Neck Cancer Patient Treated with IORT in UK First
A woman from Salisbury has become the first patient in the UK with head and neck cancer to receive radiotherapy in the operating theatre during surgery to remove a recurrent tumour. Jayne Garrett, 53, underwent major surgery at University Hospital Southampton on 25 April after suffering a recurrence of her cancer following conventional treatment […]
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PLANETS Host the 1st National IORT Symposium
It was an honour to present the fantastic work and great initial results to medics from all over the country at our 1st National IORT (intra-operative radiotherapy) Symposium on Friday June 21st at University Hospital Southampton. After a lot of hard work and fundraising in order to bring IORT to the UK for the […]
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PLANETS Cancer Charity and the Robert White Trust, Fund a new regional NET Cancer Dietitian
A dietitian funded by PLANETS Cancer Charity and the Robert White Trust Fund is due to start work to develop and provide a comprehensive dietetic service to patients diagnosed with Neuroendocrine Cancer (NETs). Ruth Lee will be based at the Dorset NET service, which is part of the Wessex European Neuroendocrine tumour society centre […]
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Southampton Secure £200k from The Robert White Trust for NETs Research
PLANETS are excited to share the news that University Hospital Southampton have secured £200,000 funding from the Robert White Trust for a research project that aims to gain a better understanding of NET biology which may lead to a greater range of treatment options for patients with this rare disease. Robert White was a former […]
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Bowel cancer patient becomes first in UK to be treated with IORT
We are thrilled and proud to update our supporters that a Southampton bowel cancer patient has become the first in the UK to receive radiotherapy during surgery using the IORT machine that PLANETS has funded. he 58-year-old male, who completed a combination of conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy in August, underwent major surgery at Southampton […]
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IORT Launch is a Success!
SOUTHAMPTON CLINICIANS PIONEER USE OF REVOLUTIONARY CANCER DEVICE PLANETS founders Neil Pearce and Brian Stedman, together with fund manager Layla Stephen successfully launched our long awaited IORT machine last night. The Mobetron is the first portable system able to administer the treatment in this way – known as intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) – and will […]
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IORT Arrives at Southampton!
PLANETS are thrilled to announce that the eagle (finally) has landed! 2 tons of intra-operative radio-therapy machine (IORT) arrived from the USA this week – currently undergoing acceptance testing. This is the UK’s first ever mobile electron beam radiotherapy machine for treating cancers during surgery. Thanks to everyone who has supported our fundraising which has […]
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Southampton Aiding Research into Earlier Diagnosis for Pancreatic Cancer
You may have notice that Southampton was mentioned in recent media stories regarding The National Tumour Bank that is carrying out important pancreatic cancer research? Colin Johnson, Professor of Surgical Sciences at University of Southampton, has this to say about the project: ‘The National Tissue Bank is a major development in pancreatic cancer research. Several […]
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Sainsbury’s Hedge End Donate Digital Radios
A big thank you to Sainsbury’s Hedge End for donating two digital radios to PLANETS to be used in the lead lined Gamma Scanner Rooms at Southampton General. Pictured presenting the radios to staff in the scanner rooms are PLANETS Fund Manager, Layla Stephen, and Dr Brian Stedman.
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PLANETS to Fund Pancreatic Cancer Research at Southampton
PLANETS Charitable Fund are excited to have committed to provide a grant over a two year period for a pancreatic research project: ́The role of Eps8 in αvβ6-dependent functions in pancreatic cancer invasion’ to be undertaken by Dr Jo Tod. Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PC) has one of the worst outcomes of any cancer; only 3.7% of patients […]
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First Patient Receives PRRT at Southampton thanks to PLANETS
[social_button button=”facebook” flayout=”standard ” fwidth=”450″ faction=”like” fcolorsheme=”light”] UHS magazine Connect featured a fantastic article about NET patient Maureen McKenzie who, in July 2013, became the first Southampton patient to receive PRRT (peptide receptor radionuclide therapy). The equipment for this treatment was jointly funded by UHS and PLANETS showing just how important and valuable the […]
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Improving Patient Services Across the Region
[social_button button=”facebook” flayout=”standard ” fwidth=”450″ faction=”like” fcolorsheme=”light”] Pancreatic cancer affects over 8000 patients each year in the uk and remains the fifth biggest cancer killer in the UK, despite this its has been underfunded for many years and currently receives just 1% of total cancer research funding in the UK. NETs are a rare form […]
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