Courtesy of Spectrum Bay News 9
TAMPA, Fla. — A new study of a cancer treatment called HIPEC, heated intraperitoneal chemotherapy, is showing good results when it comes to treating women with metastatic epithelial ovarian cancer.
Brenda Gotlen is living proof the procedure works. Back in 2018, she was given less than six months to live.
She remembers how direct her doctor, Dr. Thomas Rutherford, was when it came to her diagnosis. She met him at Tampa General Hospital.
”He said, ‘Brenda, you’ve got ovarian cancer with a very large mass and we’re going to have to do surgery,'” said Gotlen.
She had stage 3C ovarian cancer. Prior to diagnosis, she didn’t have symptoms until it had spread within her body.
Ovarian cancer is the most deadly gynecological cancer in the U.S. Every year, 20,000 women are diagnosed with it and 14,000 women die each year.
Dr. Rutherford believed Gotlen was a good candidate for HIPEC. He is the director of the Division of Gynecology and Oncology at Tampa General and USF Morsani School Of Medicine.
He had been doing HIPEC for years, and had found good success.
“I have people that are out five and seven or 15 years now that should not be alive by standard therapies,” said Dr. Rutherford. “So this is actually a nice way to enhance the microenvironment by getting your immune system to help us in the treatment.”
At the time of Gotlen’s surgery in 2018, Rutherford said HIPEC could be called experimental.
“HIPEC stands for Heated Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy and what it is, it’s a portion of the surgery that we perform for women with ovarian cancer, as well as a few other advanced cancers. After the surgical portion where we remove all visible tumor, we actually fill the entire abdominal cavity up with heated chemotherapy,” said Dr. Adrian Kohut, Gynecological Oncologist at USF College of Medicine & Tampa General Hospital.
That chemotherapy is supposed to destroy any remaining cancerous cells in the abdomen or around the ovaries.
For Gotlen, it was her only option left.
She will always remember those days following the surgery.
“Dr. Rutherford comes in and tells me, Brenda, I have some wonderful news. After we did the test on you, you are cancer free,” said Gotlen.
She has become one of many HIPEC treatment successes at TGH.
Recently, a team of doctors at TGH and USF’s Morsani College of Medicine conducted a study on the procedure. That study found HIPEC gives women with metastatic epithelial ovarian cancer longer survival rates.
“Here I am, eight years and cancer free,” said Gotlen.
She is now a patient advocate, and speaks to women before they do the HIPEC procedure.
“I feel like that God gave me a second chance of life and I wanted to give something back,” said Gotlen.
TGH is one of the highest volume centers in the country for the HIPEC procedure.
Women with ovarian cancer can have their doctor’s reach out to TGH to see if their patients would be candidates for the procedure.
Original Article: Tampa General Hospital study gives hope for ovarian cancer patients
