Russian physicians have successfully eliminated 170 lung metastases from a 37-year-old man through a series of six surgeries conducted at the country’s leading cancer treatment center.
“There are no analogs in the world oncology for this case,” reads a statement from the N.N. Petrov National Medical Research Center of Oncology on Tuesday.
The St. Petersburg-based oncological center reported that the cancer patient was admitted to the diagnostic and treatment clinic with multiple lung metastases resulting from osteosarcoma (bone cancer), which he was diagnosed with in 2020.
Over four years, the patient braved rounds of chemotherapy in Moscow, following a surgical procedure to extract a tumor along with a portion of his shoulder, and additional chemotherapy sessions in Germany. Consequently, the lesions didn't grow further. But, German medical protocols permit physicians to remove no more than 10-15 metastases per surgical session.
“Removing, for example, 30 or 50 metastases from the lower lobe of the lung is a big trauma for the body on its own, and it was critical to give [the patient] time to recover,” Yevgeny Levchenko, head of the Department of Thoracic Oncology at the N.N. Petrov NMRC, told the press, while explaining why the removals were done over six separate surgeries.
Three of the six sessions were done employing "isolated chemoperfusion," a technique developed and patented by the center. This method targets and removes new lung metastases, and it has proven to be a lifeline for patients battling advanced stage four cancer.