New treatment for colon cancer

Colorectal cancer often spreads to the liver, requiring long-term chemotherapy, but now doctors are turning to a unique infusion to treat it.

This therapy delivers chemo directly into the liver, and that greatly increases survival.

The hepatic infusion pump is a game changer, sending chemo directly to liver tumors caused by colorectal cancer.

“Patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, so stage-4 colorectal cancer that’s spread to the liver, up to 40% of them can be cured,” said Dr. Colin Court, surgical oncologist.

Nick Kincaid, an urban planner and new dad, was diagnosed at 37 and placed on traditional chemo by his physician.

“Definitely getting that initial diagnosis was very shocking,” he said.

He stopped working, began regular chemo and fatigue took over his life.

Faced with a lifetime of chemo, Kincaid is fortunate enough to work with Dr. Court, who shifted his treatment to HAI pump therapy.

“We place this into a small artery that comes off the hepatic artery that is the main blood supply to the liver and it continuously infuses chemotherapy into that hepatic artery,” Court said.

And it provides 400 times the dosage while causing minimal side effects.

“Having a doctor sort of look at it a bit differently and a see a pathway to a cure, and see other options for me was very powerful,” Kincaid said.

This FDA-approved device remains in place for the length of the treatment. The HAI pump is not available everywhere, so be sure to ask your doctor.