Fighting Pancreatic Cancer With 'Intra-arterial Chemotherapy' Clinical Trial

Miami Cancer Institute is the first center in Florida to enroll patients in a phase III trial that delivers chemotherapy directly to pancreatic tumors via a specially designed catheter threaded through the patient's arteries to the location of the tumor. This is the first time this minimally-invasive method has been used to treat pancreatic cancer.
Co-principal investigators at Miami Cancer Institute, Dr. Ripal Gandhi, an interventional oncologist, and Dr. Antonio Ucar, a medical oncologist, have seen encouraging results so far, both in terms of controlling the disease and improving patients' quality of life.
Trial participant Maria Elena de Armas, a 74-year old grandmother, shares her story of her treatment.

[Transcript]

(soft piano music)
[Photos of Maria Elena with her family]

[Narrator] 74-year-old Maria Elena de Armas faced a diagnosis of inoperable pancreatic cancer, with the support of her faith and her close-knit family.

[Maria Elena Muntaner de Armas, Pancreatic cancer patient, Miami Cancer Institute]

[Maria Elena] My life changed completely, in a minute. I have seven kids, 17 grandkids, and I never, never, ever was sad or depressed. I have so many things important in my life going on, that I wanted to live.

[Photos of Maria in examination room at Miami Cancer Institute]
(upbeat music)

[Narrator] Undeterred by the grim prognosis, Maria's search for advanced treatment options brought her to Miami Cancer Institute where she qualified for a unique clinical trial.

[Ripal T. Gandhi, M.D., Interventional Oncologist, Miami Cancer Institute]

[Dr. Gandhi] Here at the Miami Cancer Institute, we really wanna be pioneers in the area of treatment of all types of cancer. One of our drives here is doing a lot of clinical trials, and we've brought this clinical trial specifically for patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer.

[Maria Elena is wheeled into procedure room on a gurney. She is alert and smiling]

[Dr. Gandhi] And because the disease had not spread outside of the pancreas, she was a good candidate for this study. At this time, we are the only center in South Florida enrolling patients in this clinical trial.

[Antonio Ucar, M.D., Medical Oncologist, Miami Cancer Institute]

[Dr. Ucar] There are two arms to the trial. One arm is to treat with conventional type of chemotherapy, which is the intravenous chemotherapy we usually employ for the management of this type of cancer, and the other arm is the experimental arm which is with the trans-arterial chemotherapy.

[Dr. Gandhi and team of physicians performing the procedure. Large monitors show live images of the patients organs, arteries and the tumor]

[Dr. Gandhi] Intra-arterial chemotherapy is simply delivery of chemotherapy via a catheter which is placed directly into the artery and directly to the organ of interest.

[Animation showing the catheter threading through an artery to a tumor and releasing chemotherapy around it via 2 balloons attached to it.]
[Animation courtesy of RenovoRx]

[Dr. Gandhi] This is a specially designed catheter which has two balloons on it, and this allows us to actually administer high doses of chemotherapy directly to the pancreatic tumor.

[Dr. Gandhi points to the area of Maria Elena’s tumor on the monitor as the procedure is being performed]

[Dr. Gandhi] So, our goal is to infuse chemotherapy directly across this area where the vessels narrow, as that is where the pancreatic cancer is. Our hope is to improve overall survival. In the early studies with this catheter, the median survival was about 28 months which is nearly double, which is what has been shown historically.

[Dr. Ucar] When you administer the intra-arterial chemotherapy, 99% goes into the tumor or the surrounding of the tumor, so you don't get as much systemic circulation of the medication, and therefore, the side effects of that type of treatment are minimal and the tolerance to the treatment is excellent. Maria has done very well. She finished basically the bulk of the treatment and she is now in a maintenance phase.

[Maria Elena] Day by day, I see that I am able to do more things. Like, yesterday I was cleaning something in my kitchen that I saw needed to be cleaned and I was amazed that before, I couldn't even think about it.

[Dr. Gandhi] Improving quality of life, minimizing toxicity, and allowing patients to spend time with their family and their loved ones I think should be really one of the most important things that we focus on in taking care of patients with cancer.

[Photos of Maria Elena smiling with her family]

[Maria Elena] I am planning to travel, to keep on cooking in my kitchen, what I'm really, really planning to do to dedicate more time to my family. They still need me a lot.

[End of transcript]

• Category

  Pancreatic Cancer