Chemotherapy is the use of drugs to treat and fight cancer, it was used for the first time in the 1950s. Its usefulness has allowed many people to have full lives. The chemotherapy drugs your doctor or nurse administers have been tested numerous times, and research has shown that they are effective in helping fight cancer cells.
According to the American Cancer Society, there are currently more than 100 chemotherapy drugs. Doctors select certain medications according to the type of cancer and the stage of the disease.
Chemo, as it is commonly known, may be used to keep cancer from spreading, suppress its growth, kill cancer cells that might have spread to other parts of the body, relieve symptoms like pain or blockages caused by cancerous tumors, and cure cancer.
There are also different methods of chemotherapy administration:
Through a vein
Most chemotherapy drugs are put right into your bloodstream through a tiny, soft, plastic tube called a catheter. A needle is used to put the catheter into a vein in your forearm or hand; then the needle is taken out, leaving the catheter behind. This is called intravenous or IV treatment.
By mouth
You swallow the chemo as a pill, capsule, or liquid – just like other medicines.
Intrathecal or IT
IT chemo is put into the spinal canal and goes into the fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord to reach cancer cells there. This fluid is called the cerebrospinal fluid or CSF. This is important because most chemo drugs delivered by IV or by mouth are unable to reach the brain due to the blood-brain barrier.
Chemo can be delivered to the CSF through a needle placed in the spinal area, or a long-term catheter and port that can be put under the skin on your head during surgery. This port is called an Ommaya reservoir; a small drum-like device with a small tube attached to it. The tube goes into the CSF in a cavity of your brain and stays in place under your scalp until treatment is done.
Intra-arterial
In this use, the chemo drug is put right into the main artery that supplies blood to the tumor to treat a single area (such as the liver, an arm, or leg). This method helps limit the effect the drug has on other parts of the body and is called regional chemo.
Intracavitary
Chemo drugs may be given through a catheter into an enclosed area of the body such as the abdomen (this is called intraperitoneal chemo) or chest (called intrapleural chemo).
Intramuscular or IM
The drug is put in through a needle into a muscle (as an injection or shot).
Intralesional
A needle is used to put the drug right into a tumor. It’s only possible when the tumor can be safely reached with a needle.
Intravesical
The chemo is put right into the bladder through a soft catheter. It stays in for a few hours and is then drained out, and the catheter is removed.
Topical
The drug is put right on an area of cancer on the skin as a cream, gel, or ointment.
Interventional Oncology
Treatment of cancer using minimally invasive procedures performed under image guidance date back to the birth of Interventional Radiology in the 1960s. The first arterial embolizations of kidney and liver tumors were performed back then; the aim was to alleviate symptoms associated with hormones, reduce bleeding, and relieve pain. This period also yielded the first studies of intra-arterial chemotherapy delivery as an option for the treatment of metastatic liver diseases.
Since the early 1990s, minimally invasive image-guided therapies used in interventional oncology to treat hepatocellular carcinoma have continued to evolve. In addition, the range of applications has been extended to the treatment of liver metastases from colorectal cancer, neuroendocrine tumors, cholangiocarcinoma, breast cancer, melanoma and sarcoma.
Intra-arterial treatment is continuously performed in different countries all over the world (see publications). Its advantages include being less painful and debilitating for the patient, allowing faster convalescence, and causing fewer overall side effects and complications.
What IDOI does differently is the preparation, mixing, dosage and sequential administration of the different medications that integrates the treatment’s model. It also uses the intrathecal route to administer certain medication.
The interventional oncology that IDOI performs consists in a puncture made in the femoral artery through which a micro catheter is inserted and directed by fluoroscopy to the blood supply site of the tumor.
The risks related with the procedure are minimal and imply the formation of a hematoma in the puncture site (less than 5%) and a possible vascular event such as a stroke (less than 0.7%). The other part of the procedure consists in making a lumbar puncture after the intra-arterial treatment with the application of medications.
The inherent risks of this procedure are pain in the puncture site, the formation of a hematoma and some irritation of the cauda equine (radiculitis) that occurs in less than 1% of the cases.
All medication used by IDOI are approved by Cofepris and FDA.
Intra-arterial chemotherapy for DIPG
Cancer patients with grim prognoses may resort to intra-arterial chemotherapy as compassionate use or palliative treatment, since it may reduce cancer symptoms, increase survival rates, and minimize drug side effects.
The treatment provided by IDOI for DIPG is an option after patients have received traditional treatment in their country of origin.
A European Society of Pediatric Oncology (SIOPE) and the International Society of Pediatric Oncology (SIOP) collaborative report, which gathers records of Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) and was published in July 2018, reveals that the average survival rate in more than 700 cases is 11 months.
As of mid-2018, IDOI has treated 67 patients with an average age of 9 years diagnosed with DIPG. After treatment, the median survival was 18 months. Just over 70 percent of the patients had over 1 year of survival and almost 20 percent more than 2 years of survival. The Institute continues to advance and improve.
IDOI stands out as an institution by virtue of its statistics, since it has almost 10 percent of the SIOPE and SIOP patient registry, and for obtaining more favorable patient outcomes on average.
According to the American Cancer Society, chemotherapy is used as a treatment with various aims:
Cure
If possible, chemo is used to cure cancer, meaning that the cancer is destroyed – it goes away and doesn’t come back.
Most doctors don’t use the word “cure” except as a possibility or intention. So, when giving treatment that has a chance of curing a person’s cancer, the doctor may describe it as treatment with curative intent.
There are no guarantees, and though cure may be the goal, it doesn’t always work out that way. It often takes many years to know if a person’s cancer is really cured.
Control
If cure is not possible, the goal may be to control the disease. Chemo is used to shrink tumors and/or stop the cancer from growing and spreading. This can help the person with cancer feel better and live longer.
In many cases, the cancer doesn’t completely go away, but is controlled and managed as a chronic disease, much like heart disease or diabetes. In other cases, the cancer may even seem to have gone away for a while, but it’s expected to come back. Then chemo can be given again.
Palliation
Chemo can also be used to ease symptoms caused by the cancer. This is called palliative chemotherapy or palliation.
When the cancer is at an advanced stage, meaning it’s not under control and has spread from where it started to other parts of the body, the goal may be to improve the quality of life or help the person feel better. For instance, chemo may be used to help shrink a tumor that’s causing pain or pressure.
And lest we forget, in some cases, compassion is also an aim.
Compassion
When an individual has suffered an emergency or finds himself in distressing or unusual circumstances that are detrimental, chemotherapy also serves a compassionate goal. Under this premise, its function is to relieve suffering.
The intra-arterial treatment exists since long and is performed continuously in diverse countries. What IDOI does differently is the preparation, mixing, dosage and sequential administration of the different medications that integrates the treatment’s model. It also uses the intrathecal route to administer certain medication.
The interventional oncology that IDOI performs consists in a puncture made in the femoral artery through which a micro catheter is inserted and directed by fluoroscopy to the blood supply site of the tumor.
The risks related with the procedure are minimal and imply the formation of a hematoma in the puncture site (less than 5%) and a possible vascular event such as a stroke (less than 0.7%). The other part of the procedure consists in making a lumbar puncture after the intra-arterial treatment with the application of medications.
The inherent risks of this procedure are pain in the puncture site, the formation of a hematoma and some irritation of the cauda equine (radiculitis) that occurs in less than 1% of the cases.
All medication used by IDOI are approved by Cofepris and FDA.
Request for admission to the program
Thank you for your interest in the program offered by IDOI. As a first encounter, we ask you to fill an application request form through which we will evaluate your case as thoroughly as possible to decide whether the treatment can be effective for the case or not. All candidates are carefully evaluated; this is why we ask you to complete the form to start your request process.
*It is necessary to have a Google Account.
Apply here for IDOI Intra-arterial Treatment
After receiving your form and all the additional files that you wish to share with us, we will process the information and contact you as soon as a decision is made. The process generally takes a week, but it could take more time depending on the complexity of the case.
After admission
If you are admitted to our program, you will receive an appointment date and must start making travel arrangements. Please consult our Frequently Ask Questions section to obtain information about transport and accommodation options.