The delivery of an anti-cancer drug directly into the ophthalmic artery offers a new way to treat retinoblastoma.
The delivery of an anti-cancer drug directly into the ophthalmic artery offers a new way to treat retinoblastoma.
In trials on 18 children at US hospitals, 16 had their tumour cured and 14 kept their eye. Of the eyes that were saved, nine had vision and in four cases vision had improved.
The technique involves delivering the drug Melphalan through a catheter at the groin which travels up to the carotid artery, then into the ophthalmic artery and so to the retina.
Pierre Gobin of Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York described it as 'a tremendous advance'.
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