A team of US researchers has found a new drug delivery system that showed more efficacy and improved the treatment of a rare eye cancer that spreads to liver.The multi-institutional study led by Moffitt Cancer Center in Florida, US, found that percutaneous hepatic perfusion using a melphalan hepatic delivery system may help patients with metastatic uveal melanoma (mUM) — a traditionally hard-to-treat cancer and with usually poor outcomes.
Melphalan/Hepatic Delivery System is a drug or medical device combination used for liver-directed treatment of unresectable mUM patients.
This study assessed the efficacy and safety of the melphalan hepatic delivery system versus the best alternative care.
The results, published in the Annals of Surgical Oncology, showed that the treatment with the melphalan hepatic delivery system can help control the cancer in the liver.
“This new treatment gives hope to patients with this historically tough-to-treat cancer,” said lead author Jonathan Zager, surgical oncologist in the Cutaneous Oncology Department at Moffitt.
“The treatment provides an option that does not interfere with their quality of life and gives patients a chance at longer survival,” Zager added.
In the clinical trials, one group of patients received the melphalan hepatic delivery system treatment, while the other group received standard-of-care treatment.
Compared to patients receiving alternative care, those treated with the melphalan hepatic delivery system experienced significantly improved outcomes.