"I thought I should get ready to die. And then by accident—by accident—I saw this doctor, James Smythe, who told me he’d heard of some doctors at Rhode Island Hospital who were doing an experimental procedure on liver cancers.”
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James Denbow was told that there was nothing that could be done for him. He says "I thought I should get ready to die. And then by accident—by accident—I saw this doctor, James Smythe, who told me he’d heard of some doctors at Rhode Island Hospital who were doing an experimental procedure on liver cancers.”
Smythe referred Denbow to Damian Dupuy, MD, who had pioneered the use of radiofrequency ablation at the hospital, a procedure that literally “cooks” a variety of malignant tumors. Denbow's lesions, the largest the size of an orange, proved to be too large for RF ablation. Dupuy referred Jim to surgeon David Iannitti, MD, who had just received IRB approval to serve as national principal investigator in a multicenter clinical study entitled, “Microwave Ablation for Hepatic Malignancies.” The microwave allows for treatment of larger malignancies.
Before ablating Jim’s tumors, it would be necessary to shrink them through the technique of chemoembolization. In August, interventional radiologist Gregory Soares, MD, negotiated a catheter through the hepatic artery to deliver a cocktail of chemotherapeutic agents followed by small particles directly into the tumor to block off blood flow and starve the cancer’s growth.
“They used poppy seed oil. Imagine!” says Denbow. Soares explains that the iodized oily agent, lipiodol, remains in the tumor, trapping the chemotherapeutic agents there, and making it more visible to x-rays. Soares repeated the procedure in October. Denbow explains, “Then, when they did the CT scan, they said, now you’re ready!”
In the fall, Iannitti performed the microwave ablation procedure. The delicate— and dangerous—surgery involved passing clustered microwave probes into Denbow's cirrhotic liver. While doctors caution that Denbow’s prognosis is uncertain, it is certain that his liver tumor marker, at 400 on his first admission to Rhode Island Hospital, is now at 8, in the normal range.
“I was out of the hospital in a week, and back to normal activity in a couple of months,” says Denbow. For this father of five, grandfather of seven, a retired landscaper and ardent golfer, “normal activity” is lots of activity.
He says, “I feel super. It’s just unbelievable. At my five-month checkup, ‘No sign of disease.’ I’ve been up, driving my tractor, getting my son’s putting green ready for play. Today, I raced my five year-old granddaughter down the driveway. Actually, I let her win.”
