Northwestern doctors treat metastatic eye cancer with chemotherapy aimed directly at liver
By Adam Harrington
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CHICAGO, Illinois (WBBM) — Northwestern Medicine announced Tuesday that for the first time, its doctors have successfully treated metastatic eye cancer using a method that delivers chemotherapy directly to the liver.
The treatment involved a patient with uveal melanoma — a rare cancer of the eye — that had spread to the patient’s liver. Doctors at the hospital used a Hepzato Kit, which sends chemotherapy right to the liver.
Northwestern Medicine said the Hepzato Kit treatment could help patients with stage 4 uveal melanoma live longer, as it can shrink tumors that have spread to the liver and cannot be removed through surgery.
“This type of therapy has been shown to prolong survival for patients while also offering a very tolerable side effect profile, which are two things we want to prioritize,” Dr. Sunandana Chandra, medical director for melanoma and cutaneous oncology with the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, said in a news release. “It’s especially meaningful to have a therapy that helps us maintain a good quality of life for patients as we navigate a cancer that can be quite challenging to treat.”
Bozena Wojtach, 66, of Niles, became the first patient to undergo Hepzato Kit treatment at the Northwestern Medicine on April 3, the medical group said. The procedure involves several small tubes placed by interventional radiologists, which isolate the blood supply of the liver from the rest of the body before chemotherapy is administered for about half an hour, Northwestern Medicine said.
After the chemotherapy, the separated blood supply is filtered for another half hour before being returned to the body, Northwestern Medicine said.
Dr. Robert Lewandowski, director of interventional oncology at the Lurie Cancer Center at Northwestern Medicine, said in a news release that the process removes more than 80% of the chemotherapy drug after it is administered — reducing the amount that ends up elsewhere in the body.
Wojtach, a native of Krakow, Poland, spent her youth skydiving and flying planes before beginning a career in nursing, Northwestern Medicine said. She immigrated to the United States with her husband in 1966, had twin sons, and began working as a nurse in the Chicago area until retiring in 2022, Northwestern Medicine said.
Wojtach cared for oncology patients, as well as cardiology and pediatric patients.
Wojtach noticed flashing lights in her vision in 2024, and visited her optometrist, Northwestern Medicine reported. She found out a mass had developed in her right eye, and Northwestern Medicine ophthalmologist Dr. Randy Christopher Bowen diagnosed her with uveal melanoma.
Proton therapy successfully treated the tumor in Wojtach’s eye, but it turned out that the cancer had spread to her liver — the most common site for metastasis for uveal melanoma, Northwestern Medicine said.
The tumors affected less than half of Wojtach’s liver, and thus, she was a candidate for the Hepzato Kit therapy, Northwestern Medicine said. Patients can receive up to six cycles, but Wojtach only needed two to reduce her tumors by more than 50%, Northwestern Medicine said.
“I have energy. I have no pain. I don’t have any nausea or vomiting like other patient has,” said Wojtach. “I feel like I’m healthy — like I have no cancer at all.”
Doctors have recommended that Wojtach complete at least four more cycles of the treatment, Northwestern Medicine said. She hopes in the future to travel, work in her garden, and spend time with her husband and adult sons.
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