Mar 4, 2008 4:18 pm US/Eastern
New Technique Improves Life For Melanoma Patients
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―
A Baltimore hospital is one of the few in the nation to offer a state-of-the art procedure to skin cancer patients. Healthwatch reporter
Kellye Lynn shows how this minimally invasive technique is improving quality of life for people with recurrent melanoma.
Melanoma is the most serious form of skin cancer. When it spreads beyond the original site, it can be difficult to treat. Now doctors have found an effective way to shrink recurrent tumors with minimal side effects.
James Horan, 75, has spent much of his life battling skin cancer.
"For 20, 25 years I've had various skin cancers. I've had stuff frozen off, scraped off, burned off," he said.
Ten months ago, the diagnosis changed to malignant melanoma. Doctors removed the cancerous lesion from his left shin but tumors returned to his leg, making him an ideal candidate for isolated limb infusion.
"I thought of it as minimally invasive chemotherapy," Horan said.
"It almost instantly kills off the tumor," said Dr. Vadim Gushchin.
Dr. Gushchin of Mercy Medical Center explains with a patient under sedation, doctors feed a catheter from the groin to the tumor site, then infuse chemotherapy.
The minimally invasive technique restricts chemotherapy to one specific area, reducing unpleasant side effects.
Although the treatment doesn't extend a patient's life, it does improve the quality of it.
"This is by far the most effective way to treat this aggressive tumor," Dr. Gushchin said.
Dr. Gushchin says the treatment kills tumors in 40% of patients and another 40% experience shrinkage of their tumor. Twenty percent of patients have no response.
Horan had the procedure in January and it appears to be working.
The procedure takes two to three hours and patients should expect to spend five to seven days in the hospital. Most people can return to work in two weeks.
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