According to a University of Gothenburg study, an advanced surgical therapy has proven to be significantly more effective than standard therapies for individuals with melanoma in the eye (uveal) that has metastasized to the liver. High dosages of chemotherapy are infused into the liver as part of the therapy.
Uveal melanoma is a rare type of melanoma that develops in the eye rather than in the pigment cells of the skin. About 80 persons in Sweden receive the diagnosis each year. This type of cancer results in liver metastases in 50% of patients, which has a poor prognosis. The majority of patients pass away within a year after liver metastases are discovered. Regrettably, recent immunotherapy or chemotherapy treatments have had extremely limited success.
In the group receiving IHP treatment, the tumors had reduced in 39.5 percent of patients, compared to just 4.5 percent of the patients in the group receiving conventional treatment, according to the results of the subsequent X-ray scan. The IHP procedure involves extensive open surgery, the surgical isolation of the liver, and the connection of the liver to a heart-lung machine. The liver is then rejoined to the patient’s own circulation after receiving extremely high doses of a chemotherapeutic medication are pumped via the lever for an hour. By using this technique, a concentrated high dose of chemotherapy can be given to the area of the body that has the cancer cells while the rest of the body receives a much lower amount.
Since this form of cancer is so unusual, it has taken nearly ten years to complete the clinical phase III study. Almost all of Sweden’s university hospitals have contributed patients to the study, but the actual IHP treatment has been implemented at Sahlgrenska University Hospital.
The treatment was developed in the U.S. back in the 1960s. It has been tested for a number of tumor diseases, but only now has a study succeeded in showing how efficacious the therapy is specifically for patients with uveal melanoma that has metastasized (spread) to the liver.
