Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute presented an innovative new treatment at the 2011 European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress (EMCC) that can significantly extend disease-free survival times in patients with a devastating form of melanoma.
Ocular melanoma, also known as melanoma of the eye or uveal melanoma, has a tendency to metastasize to the liver. When such a development occurs, prognosis is extremely grim—patients live no more than a few months. Just ten percent of these patients survive a year after this development.
However, thanks to a new treatment called percutaneous hepatic perfusion (PHP) can extend the disease-free survival time in these patients by an average of about seven months, from 1.6 months to an average of 8.1 months, according to a Phase III trial involving 93 patients.
PHP works by directly saturating the liver with the high-dose chemotherapy drug melphalan by infusing it directly into the liver. Blood in the veins leading out of the liver during infusion is captured and filtered by a catheter to prevent the chemotherapy from affecting other parts of the body. The patient is closely monitored throughout the 30 minute infusion process.
Further Reading
News from EMCC 2011
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