New Breakthroughs Are Improving Outcomes After Cancer Surgery
The Oncology lab has determined how methods used to gain access to the abdominal cavity in order to perform surgery, alter the body's ability to heal itself and to deal with cancer cells that may remain in the days and weeks following surgery.
Online, July 14, 2011 (Newswire.com) - The Laparoscopic Physiology and Oncology Laboratory at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center is doing much to improve patient outcomes. The lab has determined how methods used to gain access to the abdominal cavity in order to perform surgery, alter the body's ability to heal itself and to deal with cancer cells that may remain in the days and weeks following surgery. The lab has demonstrated that Minimally Invasive Surgical (MIS) methods are less injurious and result in fewer and less severe changes in the composition of the blood and immune system function.
The lab's early study results suggest that major surgery (either open or laparoscopic) causes changes that would stimulate the growth of residual cancer in patients who had unforeseen circulating tumor cells after resection of the primary lesion. The lab's purpose has been to better understand why tumor growth is stimulated after surgery and to find anti-cancer therapies that can be used during the month before and immediately following surgery.
This year the lab completed a series of studies that demonstrated that a combination of green tea extract and a supplement called siliphos, when given for a week before and for three weeks after surgery, significantly inhibits the growth of cancer cells both subcutaneously and in the liver during the preoperative period. It was also determined that this drug combination did not impair or inhibit wound healing (abdominal wall and gastric wound strength was assessed). The results of the final study were presented at the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons meeting this spring.
A Phase 1 study is planned for 2011 in which patients undergoing large bowel resection for cancer will have the opportunity to take these two drugs for the week prior and for 3 weeks after their operation. A study proposal has been submitted and representatives from the lab are soon meeting with the FDA to request permission to use this drug combination in humans. They hope to enroll 30-40 patients in the study.
For more information on this and other current studies, you can visit www.slrsurgery.org or call us at: (212) 523-7780.