El Camino Hospital in Mountain View enrolled its first patient earlier this month in a new safety study of a catheter that delivers targeted chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer.
RenovoCath – manufactured in Los Altos by RenovoRx – brings fluids to targeted sites in the peripheral vascular system. The dose-escalation safety study evaluates the delivery of the anticancer drug Gemcitabine, directly infused into the arteries that supply blood flow to the area of the pancreatic tumor. The therapy is being tested in patients with cancer that cannot be surgically removed from the pancreas.
Dr. Reza Malek, the interventional radiologist who led the first patient’s procedure, said the targeted delivery could potentially reduce side effects and increase the effectiveness of treatment.
“Many therapeutic agents – chemotherapy and thrombolytics, for example – have been demonstrated to be less effective when delivered systemically,” he said.
Dr. Jiali Li, oncologist at Valley Medical Oncology, is the principal investigator of the study. Li anticipates enrolling 20 patients. For the initial procedure, Dr. David Madoff, an adviser to RenovoRx, consulted with the El Camino team.
“I was pleased to be involved in the first patient’s treatment in this study,” said Madoff, chief of interventional radiology at New York Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York. “The outcome of this study could help physicians provide another treatment option for their patients with pancreatic cancer.”
Pancreatic cancer patients enrolled in the study will receive treatment through the RenovoCath catheter, specifically designed for the isolation of blood flow and delivery of fluids into selected sites in the peripheral vascular system using a dual balloon occlusion design.
For more information on the RenovoCath, visit renovorx.com.
For more information on the study, call Li at the research study hotline at (888) 262-1658.
