Traditional chemotherapy delivers a cancer-killing drug throughout the whole body, killing many healthy cells as well as the cancer cells. A new treatment known as a “chemo-bath” delivers the same chemotherapy drugs to just one organ in the body. It has recently been tested on patients in the UK for the first time.
Doctors at the Southampton General Hospital believe it is possible to target one organ through chemotherapy, sparing the rest of the body from the unhealthy side effects. Chemo-baths allow doctors to give higher doses of the drug without damaging healthy cells, which can result in fatigue, hair loss, and fertility damage.
Two patients in the UK have now received chemo-baths on just their livers. Both patients suffered from a rare eye cancer that had spread to their livers.
Doctors inflated blood vessels surrounding the liver to isolate it from the rest of the body, then pumped the organ full of chemotherapy drugs. The drugs are filtered out before the liver is reconnected to the main blood supply, which leaves only a tiny fraction of chemotherapy to spread through the rest of the body.
The initial tests were performed three months ago, and already the tumors have shrunk.
Dr. Brian Stedman, a consultant intervention radiologist, said “Previously, the outlook for patients specifically suffering from cancer which ahs spread to the liver has been poor because standard chemotherapy’s effect is limited by the unwanted damage the drug causes to the rest of the body.”
Dr. Stedman told the BBC, “In 20 years’ time the idea of injecting a drug which poisons the whole body for a cancer in just one small area will seem bonkers.”
The researchers believe that chemo-baths can be effective for any organ that can be easily separated from the main blood supply, such as the kidney, pancreas, and lungs.
While the new method remains in its infancy and has only been tested on two patients, it is promising for the future of chemotherapy. The drug has had mixed success with most cancers, and often the side effects outweigh the benefits. By targeting a specific organ, chemotherapy can kill the dangerous cancer cells in the body while leaving the patient relatively unharmed.
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