It's a treatment that can raise the dismal
survival rate from ovarian cancer by 10 percentage points, but most
women who should be getting it aren't.
A new study shows just 41 percent of eligible
women are getting chemotherapy delivered directly to the affected area,
even though the benefits are so strong that the National Cancer
Institute has made a rare recommendation for doctors to use it.
The therapy involved infusing strong
chemotherapy drugs directly into a patient's abdomen alongside more
traditional intravenous infusions.
It's not as easy as just showing up once a week
or so to sit in a chair for a few hours. Patients have to be admitted to
the hospital to get it. But a 2006 study showed that adding the extra
infusion — called intraperitoneal chemotherapy — adds 16 months to the
average patient's life.
Full article and related video available here: Women Not Getting Lifesaving Cancer Treatment...
No comments:
Post a Comment