Advanced Chemotherapy Delivery Methods: Improving Treatment Efficacy

Chemotherapy is the use of drugs to fight cancer cells while reducing the side effects of the treatment to a minimum. It may not always be effective. In fighting a brain tumor, for instance, not all drugs can pass through the brain's protective barrier that allows molecules to reach the central nervous system. Alternative delivery methods for chemotherapy recognize that the choice of drugs as well as the delivery method influence success of the treatment.

Intra-Arterial Chemotherapy

• Doctors use intra-arterial chemotherapy to fight liver cancer and pancreatic cancer, as well as other forms of cancer when it is appropriate. In this alternative chemo delivery method, a doctor places a catheter in your artery to send the chemotherapy drug directly to a tumor. This has the effect of concentrating the drug inside the tumor and reducing its exposure to healthy tissue.

Interstitial Chemotherapy

• In interstitial chemotherapy, a surgeon uses a disc-shaped polymer wafer soaked with the treatment drug. She implants the wafer directly into the surgical cavity after removing the problem tumor. For instance, in the treatment of brain cancer, this alternative chemo delivery method would implant a wafer soaked with carmustine, a recognized chemotherapeutic drug for the treatment of brain cancer.

Perfusion Therapy

• Perfusion therapy is an aggressive way of delivering a treatment drug to a tumor and thereby avoiding exposure to other body parts. The treatment bathes the organ in chemotherapy for an hour. This may lead to greater success than delivery of treatment through a patient's vein. Some patients need only one treatment, while others may need a few treatments for this alternative chemo delivery method to be effective. Doctors have used this method for treatment of cancers of the liver, abdomen and lung.