Limb hope for skin cancer victims

Repeat melanomas can be targeted

Patients who face losing a limb through skin cancer now have new hope thanks to a technique imported from Australia. BBC News Online's Jane Elliott finds out more.

Grandmother Eleanor Ogden first suffered from skin cancer four years ago.

The malignant melanoma on her leg was removed, but returned twice.

Many patients in her condition face losing their limb, but doctors in Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham managed to save her leg with a technique pioneered in Australia.

The treatment, called isolated limb infusion (ILI), allows doctors to pump huge amounts of chemotherapy into the affected area without harming the rest of the body.

There was no pain and I didn't feel sick or sleepy at all

Eleanor Ogden

Pioneering surgery

Mrs Ogden was the first person in Europe to benefit from the treatment, but surgeons are hopeful they can use ILI soon to treat other cancers.

In the past patients like Mrs Ogden faced either amputation or major surgery lasting up to eight hours.

Cancer drugs can be pumped into the affected areas

But under ILI the skin is numbed with a local anaesthetic and two thin plastic tubes are threaded into the groin opposite the cancer.

The blood is then warmed to 41 degrees celsius to help increase the effectiveness of the drugs and then a tourniquet is applied to cut off the circulation to the limb, but still allowing the drugs to be pumped through.

Mrs Ogden, 72, said she had been keen to try the new technique, which only took an hour.

"I thought it would be better because it was less invasive.

"There was no pain and I didn't feel sick or sleepy at all."

Just six days later she was discharged from hospital and is full of praise for the operation.

"At the moment, my leg feels very stiff and is itching, but that is a good sign that shows the treatment is working.

"It's a small price to pay."

Versatile

Consultant dermatologist Dr Jerry Marsden said the new techniques will benefit those getting repeated cancers like Mrs Ogden as it widens their treatment options.

They now hope to do up to six of these operations a month.

"We can repeat this technique so it can be used again and again and with different combinations of drugs."

"There are lots of other diseases it could be used for, other types of skin cancer; lymphoma and sarcoma. It is much more versatile and much easier to use."

He said other techniques such as isolated limb perfusion (ILP) which involves up to eight hours of surgery, were much more invasive and costly.

A spokeswoman for the Cancer Research UK said: "This technique appears to offer new hope to patients with recurrent melanoma that is threatening the lower part of an arm or leg.

"Among its benefits are that it is cheaper and quicker to perform than existing treatments."