New treatment brings hope to people with advanced abdominal cancers


Sue Neill was running out of options.

Her advanced ovarian cancer wasn’t responding to chemotherapy. Since being diagnosed in 2000, she had endured three treatment courses, and nothing seemed to work for very long.

In September 2004, Neill landed in Peninsula Medical Center with complications.

Today the San Mateo mother of two recalls the experience as good fortune. While in the hospital, she met Martin Goodman, M.D., a surgical oncologist who offered her hope with an advanced chemotherapy procedure.

“If I hadn’t been in the hospital, I never would have heard about this procedure, and that it was available in my own neighborhood,” Neill said. “I had a second opinion at a university hospital, and no one told me about this option.”

The procedure, called intraperitoneal hyperthermic chemotherapy (IPHC), involves a potent combination of heat and chemotherapy administered during surgery.

“IPHC is used to treat cancer that has spread to the abdominal cavity, including cancers of the stomach, colon, appendix, large and small intestines and ovaries,” Dr. Goodman said.

“These cancers are impossible to completely remove surgically, and they often recur despite conventional chemotherapy which, taken orally or intravenously, is diluted by the time it reaches the abdomen.

“With IPHC, the chemotherapy drugs come into direct contact with tumors and at higher concentrations. Because heat kills cancer cells, it further enhances the therapy,” the said.

“A five-year study of patients with advanced disease found the treatment not only doubled or tripled life expectancy, but also showed that many patients experienced less pain and were able to resume daily activities.”

Sue Neill is optimistic. Good CT scan and blood test results have kept her “treatment free” since the procedure. She’s back to work fulltime as a program manager for Hitachi in San Jose and recently celebrated her birthday with husband, Ricky, and two daughters, ages 16 and 10.

“Dr. Goodman was great,” she said. “He met with my whole family to answer questions and took plenty of time to explain everything. It was a blessing that I was in the hospital, and that he found me. Dr. Goodman saved my life.”