'It gave me real hope': Leeds surgeons help 92-year-old beat the odds after devastating cancer diagnosis
Pioneering surgery in Leeds shrinks great-grandmother’s inoperable liver cancer tumour
A great-grandmother thought to have inoperable cancer has become the first person in the country to receive novel treatment thanks to pioneering surgeons in Leeds.
Brenda Iveson, from Harrogate, was told that usual cancer treatments would not work for the six-centimetre tumour in her liver.
But medics at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust offered the 92-year-old a minimally invasive procedure following her diagnosis last year.
She was given robotic-guided electrochemotherapy – a treatment that combines a small dose of chemotherapy with targeted electrical pulses.
Surgeons used robotic needle guidance to precisely place needles around the tumour to help direct the treatment in a pioneering move that has never been performed in the UK before.
Now Mrs Iveson’s tumour has shrunk by around 80- per cent.
She said: “I had been told there was nothing that could be done.
“So to be offered this treatment gave me real hope.
“I’m so glad I went ahead — it wasn’t painful or debilitating, and I feel very well.”
Professor Tze Min Wah, research and innovation lead for the interventional oncology programme at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and professor of interventional radiology at the University of Leeds, said: “This treatment allowed us to offer an option where there would otherwise have been none.
“The addition of robotic guidance improves precision and opens up new possibilities, particularly for patients with tumours in difficult locations or who are not suitable for other treatments.”
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is currently the only hospital in the UK delivering liver cancer electrochemotherapy as part of a European research study.
The study is assessing the safety and efficacy of the treatment for patients with liver cancer.
It is also examining the impact of survival, quality of life and pain.
Current scans show that Mrs Iveson’s tumour is in a stable condition and she is being monitored closely by experts at the hospital trust.
“We are all happy that something could be done that might prolong my life and which was not painful or debilitating in any way,” Mrs Iveson added.
“It seems to be a very effective treatment and particularly useful in older patients who are frail.”