St. John first in state to use chemo bath for thoracic cancer - Grosse Pointe News (subscription)

October 10, 2013

A unique treatment involving the use of hot chemotherapy, originally used for advanced cancers that have spread to the lining of the abdominal cavity, is now being used to treat cancer in the chest cavity.

St. John Hospital and Medical Center is the first in Michigan to treat a patient using the procedure. The patient, a 48-year-old year Detroit woman, was successfully treated for cancer of the appendix that had spread to the chest. The patient recovered without complication and left the hospital in approximately one week.

The treatment, known as hyperthermic intrathoracic chemotherapy, or HITEC, involves surgically removing cancerous tumors from the chest cavity, then bathing the cavity with hot chemotherapy. The surgeon continuously circulates a heated, sterile chemotherapy solution throughout the chest cavity for up to two hours, killing remaining cancer cells without damaging normal cells in the body. The solution is then removed and the incision is closed. The operation was performed by Richard Berri M.D, chief of surgical oncology at St. John, and Luis Camero M.D, St. John's chief of thoracic surgery.

Delivering the heated chemotherapy throughout the chest cavity distributes the drug thoroughly and allows it to directly penetrate the areas of cancer and reach areas where cancer cells aren't easily visible. Because the chemotherapy is delivered directly to the tumor, many of the side effects associated with intravenous administration of these powerful drugs can be avoided. For these patients, chemotherapy through a vein may only give them an additional few months to live.

"This form of chemotherapy delivery is showing tremendous promise," said Berri, one of only a handful of surgeons in the U.S. trained to perform the operation. "Our goal is to find more applications for this unique chemotherapy treatment so we can offer another treatment option and hope to more cancer patients."

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That treatment has applications for a number of advanced cancers that have spread to the lining of the abdominal cavity, including colorectal, gastric, ovarian, appendiceal and mesothelioma.

Berri also successfully performed the state's first laparoscopic HIPEC in June. That procedure was combined with the laparoscopic removal of the patient's diseased kidney, which was performed by Dr. Edward Schervish, a St. John Hospital surgeon.