HER2 Support Group Forums - View Single Post - 'Targeted Chemo' Safely Shrinks Liver Tumors

Rich66 · 02-10-2009, 01:32 PM

http://www.the-dispatch.com/article/...05/1053/SPORTS

Local woman participating in promising clinical trial

By VIKKI BROUGHTON HODGES
The Dispatch

Published: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 at 9:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 at 9:08 a.m.
A High Rock Lake resident is a participant in a national clinical trial that is giving hope to the estimated 200,000 Americans diagnosed with liver cancer each year.

.art_main_pic { width:250px; float:left; clear:left; }

Click to enlarge Linda Campbell (left) and her daughter, Lisa Campbell-Taylor, stand in front of a display of homemade Valentine's Day cards in their shop, Peanut Doodles, which is in Lakeside Village in Southmont.
Vikki B. Hodges/The Dispatch

Want to know more?
For more information, visit livercancertrials.com. To see the 'ABC News' news clip and video of how the process works, go to abcnews.go.com/
Health/Cutting Edge/story?id=
6803208&page=1.

Click to enlarge Lab assistant Hether Ashby (left) draws blood from Linda Campbell on Monday at Lexington Memorial Hospital. Campbell has bloodwork done twice a week at LMH to monitor her hemoglobin and red and white blood cell counts, among other things, as she participates in a national clinical trial on treating liver cancer.
Vikki B. Hodges/The Dispatch

Linda Campbell, 59, was diagnosed with liver cancer in July 2008. She had already beaten ocular melanoma, a very rare form of skin cancer, in 2000 and a recurrence in 2006. But a routine CT scan of her liver this past summer found that the cancer had metastasized to the organ. An MRI confirmed that her liver was "riddled" with numerous peppercorn-size tumors and two marble-size ones.
Campbell said she didn't hesitate to participate in the trial.
"I knew it was my best chance to survive," she said. "If you do nothing, you might live a year if you're lucky."
Campbell was featured last week on "ABC News" about her participation in a Phase III clinical trial at the University of Maryland Medical Center, one of about a dozen trial sites, in which a targeted drug delivery system allows doctors to deliver significantly higher doses of anti-cancer drugs to the site of disease without exposing the patient's entire body to those same high levels.
In Campbell's case, her liver is receiving 10 times the amount of a standard chemotherapy drug than would be used in systemic cancer therapies that are given intravenously and go to all parts of the body. The targeted therapy has shown that getting more of the drugs to the tumor site - and less to the rest of the body - increases the rate of tumor shrinkage and improves quality of life by lessening the usual side effects such as nausea and hair loss.
Campbell said the targeted therapy is done by threading a catheter to the liver and injecting the high dose of the chemotherapy drug directly into the organ for the next 30 minutes and then capturing the blood as it leaves the liver. The blood is then filtered to remove the chemo and returned to the body.
But the treatment is much more involved than a half-hour process. Every five weeks Campbell and her grown daughter, Lisa Campbell-Taylor, drive to Baltimore for the treatment.
The night before the chemotherapy, Campbell is hydrated intravenously to better tolerate the chemo.
"The filter gets the chemo out of the liver, but it takes everything out, the good and the bad, so they have to put some things back in," she said, adding that she is ready to return home the next afternoon.
Campbell said the first treatment hit her the hardest and was the highest dosage she has received. But the second and third treatments were much easier for her to tolerate, with some fatigue the only side effect.
"I would come home and feel tired but also feel great," she said.
Campbell returns for her fourth treatment next week.
Dr. H. Richard Alexander Jr. in Baltimore, who is running the clinical trial, said the recently completed Phase I clinical trial showed that after four monthly treatments, liver tumors shrank in half of the patients. Two patients actually had their tumors disappear.
"Phase I was a small number of patients, about a dozen, but the results were so striking we went to the FDA and said we'd like to go straight to the definitive Phase III treatment," said Alexander, who began his research several years ago at the National Institutes of Health. "And they agreed to that because of the results we got."
It could still take another year to 18 months for final Food and Drug Administration approval for the now experimental treatment, Alexander said. More patients continue to be enrolled in the Phase III trial.
"It's been deemed safe, but this stage is to verify its effectiveness," he said.
Alexander said a scan of Campbell's liver in the initial treatment stage showed encouraging tumor shrinkage. Before treatment, the small tumors were so close together and overlapping that it was hard to distinguish them.
"I'm very optimistic," he said.
Campbell credits Alexander, as well as her local oncologist, Dr. William Black of Carolina Oncology Associates in Salisbury, and many other medical professionals who have treated her over the past nine years. She noted it's a team effort, too. She has bloodwork done twice weekly at Lexington Memorial Hospital to monitor her white and red blood cell counts and hemoglobin levels, among other things. If she needs a blood transfusion, she goes to Rowan Regional Medical Center, which Black is associated with. She had been referred to Alexander by a surgical oncologist at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill.
When she was diagnosed with ocular melanoma by a retina specialist in 2000 at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., she was referred to a specialist at Will's Eye Institute in Philadelphia, which specializes in ocular oncology and related conditions of the eye. She and her husband, Hugh, lived in McLean, Va., at the time, before he retired from the U.S. Coast Guard; they moved to High Rock Lake about two and a half years ago to be closer to their daughter and her husband, Perry Taylor, an engineer for Richard Childress Racing.
"I tell people to research and find the best possible doctors in their area," she said. "I've been so lucky. I've had the best doctors you could possibly have.
"They've all said don't give up. Their positive attitude has been very helpful."
Campbell said she also tells everyone that follow-up care and exams are crucial once you've been diagnosed with any form of cancer because of the way it can silently spread. Doctors knew that ocular melanoma can spread to the brain and liver, so she received annual scans, which is how her liver cancer was discovered, not because of any symptoms.
"Follow-up is so important," she said.
Campbell said people should also make sure they have annual eye exams. She said she only knew something was wrong in her eye because the tumor was in her line of vision and started to affect her sight. She noted that most ocular melanoma tumors are to the side of the eye, and people may have no symptoms or vision problems for years, during which time the tumors grow and become more deadly.
"You have to be your own best advocate, too," said Hugh Campbell. "You have to keep asking questions."
When Campbell and her daughter go to Baltimore, Hugh and Perry take care of their business, Peanut Doodles, a scrapbooking, card making and art supply business in Southmont the mother, daughter and son-in-law opened in June 2008. They also take care of the shop's two mascots, Peanut, for whom the business is named, and Buttercup.
"My family has been wonderful," she said. "And this store really keeps me going. It gives me a reason to get up and come in every day. We've met so many people through the store, and everyone has just been wonderful."
Campbell said she is very encouraged by preliminary results but also realistic.
"I will be going up there and be monitored the rest of my life," she said. "It's a lifestyle thing. I just hope it prolongs my life a good long time.
"I know it's not a cure, but it's buying me time, and I'm hoping they find a cure."
Vikki Broughton Hodges can be reached at 249-3981, ext. 214, or at vikki.hodges@the-dispatch.com.

02-10-2009, 01:32 PM	#3
Rich66 Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: South East Wisconsin Posts: 3,431	http://www.the-dispatch.com/article/...05/1053/SPORTS Local woman participating in promising clinical trial By VIKKI BROUGHTON HODGES The Dispatch Published: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 at 9:00 a.m. Last Modified: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 at 9:08 a.m. A High Rock Lake resident is a participant in a national clinical trial that is giving hope to the estimated 200,000 Americans diagnosed with liver cancer each year. .art_main_pic { width:250px; float:left; clear:left; } Click to enlarge Linda Campbell (left) and her daughter, Lisa Campbell-Taylor, stand in front of a display of homemade Valentine's Day cards in their shop, Peanut Doodles, which is in Lakeside Village in Southmont. Vikki B. Hodges/The Dispatch Want to know more? For more information, visit livercancertrials.com. To see the 'ABC News' news clip and video of how the process works, go to abcnews.go.com/ Health/Cutting Edge/story?id= 6803208&page=1. Click to enlarge Lab assistant Hether Ashby (left) draws blood from Linda Campbell on Monday at Lexington Memorial Hospital. Campbell has bloodwork done twice a week at LMH to monitor her hemoglobin and red and white blood cell counts, among other things, as she participates in a national clinical trial on treating liver cancer. Vikki B. Hodges/The Dispatch Linda Campbell, 59, was diagnosed with liver cancer in July 2008. She had already beaten ocular melanoma, a very rare form of skin cancer, in 2000 and a recurrence in 2006. But a routine CT scan of her liver this past summer found that the cancer had metastasized to the organ. An MRI confirmed that her liver was "riddled" with numerous peppercorn-size tumors and two marble-size ones. Campbell said she didn't hesitate to participate in the trial. "I knew it was my best chance to survive," she said. "If you do nothing, you might live a year if you're lucky." Campbell was featured last week on "ABC News" about her participation in a Phase III clinical trial at the University of Maryland Medical Center, one of about a dozen trial sites, in which a targeted drug delivery system allows doctors to deliver significantly higher doses of anti-cancer drugs to the site of disease without exposing the patient's entire body to those same high levels. In Campbell's case, her liver is receiving 10 times the amount of a standard chemotherapy drug than would be used in systemic cancer therapies that are given intravenously and go to all parts of the body. The targeted therapy has shown that getting more of the drugs to the tumor site - and less to the rest of the body - increases the rate of tumor shrinkage and improves quality of life by lessening the usual side effects such as nausea and hair loss. Campbell said the targeted therapy is done by threading a catheter to the liver and injecting the high dose of the chemotherapy drug directly into the organ for the next 30 minutes and then capturing the blood as it leaves the liver. The blood is then filtered to remove the chemo and returned to the body. But the treatment is much more involved than a half-hour process. Every five weeks Campbell and her grown daughter, Lisa Campbell-Taylor, drive to Baltimore for the treatment. The night before the chemotherapy, Campbell is hydrated intravenously to better tolerate the chemo. "The filter gets the chemo out of the liver, but it takes everything out, the good and the bad, so they have to put some things back in," she said, adding that she is ready to return home the next afternoon. Campbell said the first treatment hit her the hardest and was the highest dosage she has received. But the second and third treatments were much easier for her to tolerate, with some fatigue the only side effect. "I would come home and feel tired but also feel great," she said. Campbell returns for her fourth treatment next week. Dr. H. Richard Alexander Jr. in Baltimore, who is running the clinical trial, said the recently completed Phase I clinical trial showed that after four monthly treatments, liver tumors shrank in half of the patients. Two patients actually had their tumors disappear. "Phase I was a small number of patients, about a dozen, but the results were so striking we went to the FDA and said we'd like to go straight to the definitive Phase III treatment," said Alexander, who began his research several years ago at the National Institutes of Health. "And they agreed to that because of the results we got." It could still take another year to 18 months for final Food and Drug Administration approval for the now experimental treatment, Alexander said. More patients continue to be enrolled in the Phase III trial. "It's been deemed safe, but this stage is to verify its effectiveness," he said. Alexander said a scan of Campbell's liver in the initial treatment stage showed encouraging tumor shrinkage. Before treatment, the small tumors were so close together and overlapping that it was hard to distinguish them. "I'm very optimistic," he said. Campbell credits Alexander, as well as her local oncologist, Dr. William Black of Carolina Oncology Associates in Salisbury, and many other medical professionals who have treated her over the past nine years. She noted it's a team effort, too. She has bloodwork done twice weekly at Lexington Memorial Hospital to monitor her white and red blood cell counts and hemoglobin levels, among other things. If she needs a blood transfusion, she goes to Rowan Regional Medical Center, which Black is associated with. She had been referred to Alexander by a surgical oncologist at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill. When she was diagnosed with ocular melanoma by a retina specialist in 2000 at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., she was referred to a specialist at Will's Eye Institute in Philadelphia, which specializes in ocular oncology and related conditions of the eye. She and her husband, Hugh, lived in McLean, Va., at the time, before he retired from the U.S. Coast Guard; they moved to High Rock Lake about two and a half years ago to be closer to their daughter and her husband, Perry Taylor, an engineer for Richard Childress Racing. "I tell people to research and find the best possible doctors in their area," she said. "I've been so lucky. I've had the best doctors you could possibly have. "They've all said don't give up. Their positive attitude has been very helpful." Campbell said she also tells everyone that follow-up care and exams are crucial once you've been diagnosed with any form of cancer because of the way it can silently spread. Doctors knew that ocular melanoma can spread to the brain and liver, so she received annual scans, which is how her liver cancer was discovered, not because of any symptoms. "Follow-up is so important," she said. Campbell said people should also make sure they have annual eye exams. She said she only knew something was wrong in her eye because the tumor was in her line of vision and started to affect her sight. She noted that most ocular melanoma tumors are to the side of the eye, and people may have no symptoms or vision problems for years, during which time the tumors grow and become more deadly. "You have to be your own best advocate, too," said Hugh Campbell. "You have to keep asking questions." When Campbell and her daughter go to Baltimore, Hugh and Perry take care of their business, Peanut Doodles, a scrapbooking, card making and art supply business in Southmont the mother, daughter and son-in-law opened in June 2008. They also take care of the shop's two mascots, Peanut, for whom the business is named, and Buttercup. "My family has been wonderful," she said. "And this store really keeps me going. It gives me a reason to get up and come in every day. We've met so many people through the store, and everyone has just been wonderful." Campbell said she is very encouraged by preliminary results but also realistic. "I will be going up there and be monitored the rest of my life," she said. "It's a lifestyle thing. I just hope it prolongs my life a good long time. "I know it's not a cure, but it's buying me time, and I'm hoping they find a cure." Vikki Broughton Hodges can be reached at 249-3981, ext. 214, or at vikki.hodges@the-dispatch.com.