Well a bit later than planned, damned house move, I can update you all on the Peritoneal Tumour Service Patient day at the Christie hospital on September 21st, 2016. The event was really well attended, I’m constantly amazed that this community is much larger than I have ever realised and yet again I was able to meet some amazing people.
Professor O’Dwyer spoke first of her journey to setting up the unit at the Christie. How in 1999 Dr Sugarbaker came to Basingstoke to perform an operation and he called a meeting in London. The demand to hear more was such that 20 doctors from the UK attended. In 2000, the Christie had their first ‘guinea pig‘ and finally in 2005, the NHS gave them their license to perform the surgery.
They now have almost 300 referrals per year, almost as many as bowel cancer referrals. Between 2002-2016, they had 2157 patient referrals and 907 procedures performed. The average stay in hospital is 12 days, lower than any other unit.
The procedure is now being performed at the Mater in Dublin, Ninewells in Dundee and the Good Hope in Birmingham, as well as Basingstoke and the Christie. Good news perhaps that more people are being given the correct diagnosis and referrals.
We then heard from a fellow patient and some of the psychology and complimentary therapies the Christie can offer.
Professor Renehan spoke after lunch of the research the Christie are involved in. Now this is where I may have lost some of the things he said in translation but I will try and give it a go!
They have successfully managed to ‘immortalise’ some cells in the lab that they can test drugs on. They have discovered that PMP is more sensitive to Oxaliplatin¹ than even bowel cancers are. Good news for PMP!
- Cell line drugs screens in PMP
- Determining key driver genes in PMP (1000’s of genes are abnormal but only 3 or 4 are the ‘drivers’ of the disease)
- Characterising colerectoral cancer with peritoneal metastasis, which is different to both bowel cancer and PMP. This cancer seems to be the new kid on the block!
This was the first time the Christie have run this type of event and due to its success, they plan on doing them every year! I hope to meet more of you next time.
– Susan
1 Oxaliplatin is a chemotherapy drug based on platinum
Since being diagnosed I’ve been hoping a drug based treatment would be in the works. So encouraged by this news.
So glad that the conference was a success and highlights the great strides being made in this country with PMP.
I had Oxaliplatin as part of Folfox chemo regime for my first diagnosis of bowel cancer. I was then diagnosed with PMP. I had a successful cytoreductive surgery and HIPEC at Basingstoke – thank you, Mr Cecil – and am now on a double chemo regime – Cetuximab and Folfiri – thank you Dr Glynne-Jones.
Sounds like you had a great and informed day.
Can I just confirm, is Ninewells now offering cytoreductive surgery with HIPEC ?
Sharon, to confirm: yes, cytoreductive surgery and HIPEC is offered at Ninewells and has been for some time. The consultant is Mr Polignano. You can read an article about it here:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/scots-at-forefront-of-radical-cancer-op-1-810589