Temporarily diverting blood leaving the liver during chemotherapy could prolong the lives of people with primary or secondary liver tumours. The hour-long procedure allows massive doses of chemotherapy drugs to reach the liver and kill the cancer cells without poisoning the rest of the body.
The regime involves injecting the drug straight into the liver, while using catheters and balloons to divert the blood leaving it. This blood is then filtered to remove most of the drug.
“The amount of drug getting to the tumour is hundreds of times more than usual,” says Richard Taney, president of Delcath Systems, the New York-based company developing the procedure.…
