Researchers have developed a new technique for delivery of chemotherapy to children with retinoblastoma. In this technique, clinicians pass a catheter through the patient’s blood vessels from an incision in the groin to the ophthalmic artery. Chemotherapy drugs are then administered via the catheter in smaller amounts than would normally be needed if the drugs were given systemically.

This technique, called the intra-arterial approach, was developed by researchers led by Akihiro Kaneko, of the National Cancer Centre in Japan, and David Abramson, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York. Doctors in London have used this technique in 12 children with retinoblastoma at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

Currently the intra-arterial approach is only when the children have already failed to respond to systemic chemotherapy or when the cancer has returned and patients have already lost an eye. However, it could become a front-line treatment after more evaluation.

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