Delcath Systems, a New York City company, received the European CE Mark for its Hepatic CHEMOSAT Delivery System. The company’s technology involves placing an extracorporeal filter that can clean blood of chemotherapeutic agents that leave the liver. The system allows for greater dosages of chemo to reach the target while preserving the rest of the body from serious side effects.
Some details from Delcath technology page:
1. Isolation
The Delcath Isolation-Aspiration catheter is inserted through the femoral vein and guided into the inferior vena cava and positioned so that when the balloons on the catheter are inflated they isolate the normal hepatic outflow of blood from the patient’s general circulatory system.
2. Saturation
The chemotherapeutic agent is delivered directly to the liver by a specialized chemo delivery catheter placed in the hepatic artery. In this procedure the chemotherapeutic agent is administered at dose levels several times higher than the currently approved limit of traditional systemic chemotherapy delivered via a standard IV infusion.
3. Filtration
The chemo saturated blood is filtered by an extracorporeal filtration circuit that uses a proprietary plasma cleansing technology to reduce toxic levels of the drug before returning it to the patient.
Press release: Delcath Receives Notice of European Regulatory Approval for Hepatic CHEMOSAT(TM) Delivery System…
Delcath technology page…
