mpbser wrote:How do you know it's perfectly safe? It's a brand new adaptation that hasn't been used on/in more than a handful of people yet.
My MSKCC liver surgeon has implanted the new Medtronic pumps for several months now. I specifically asked him if the surgery was more difficult. He said there's no issue there, the issue is with maintenance because it requires a bit more skill than the Codman. It has a separate external unit that is used to program the pump to adjust the chemo and oncology nurses have to learn to use it. He said the pump is performing well though and he's implanted many of them now.
I agree that the clinical trial is a formality to get the pump approved for liver mets since Medtronic originally designed it as a pain pump. MSK would not use anything they felt was even remotely dangerous for the patient. Codman is the bad guy in this scenario. It is the norm to allow a long period of time before discontinuing a medical device, but Codman literally decided to stop production with a few weeks notice. It wasn't only MSK who was left in the lurch - about a dozen other cancer centers had just started HAI programs shortly before this happened. Everyone was left scrambling. Codman's only response was that it wasn't a money maker for them. My response to that is "charge more money for it then, but don't leave patients high and dry. It's simply unethical."
chadwick1 wrote:I saw the name mentioned and just wanted to say I had a liver resection with Dr. Kingham last month and it went really well. Both he and my onc agreed I wasn’t a good candidate for the pump due to a probable lung met, so I don’t have anything to add about that unfortunately. But surgically in general he and his team were great and I think you will be in good hands.
Chadwick, I'm confused why your liver was resected but they didn't implant the pump at the same time. I had a met in each of my lungs and still got the pump. Hopefully your liver will stay clear in your next scans, but if you have a recurrence, get a consultation with Dr. Kemeny about the pump.
Juliej