Innovative Chemotherapy ‘Bath’ Treatment Offers Cancer Patients Hope
Community Regional Medical Center in downtown Fresno is the only hospital in the central San Joaquin Valley to offer hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy, an innovative treatment for patients with few conventional options.
The Fresno Bee:
A Ray Of Hope For Stage 4 Appendix Cancer Patients At Fresno Hospital
A 90-minute chemotherapy bath is giving Agustina Meza-Alfonso a new lease on life. Last week Meza-Alfonso, 48, became the first patient to undergo hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy at Community Regional Medical Center in downtown Fresno.Without the complicated, innovative procedure, the Visalia homemaker, diagnosed with stage 4 cancer of the appendix, had few options. She had a 10- to 12-inch tumor growing low in her pelvis and microscopic tumors growing on the walls of her abdomen. When she was referred to Community’s cancer doctors, they found her tumor had grown dangerously close to her kidneys. “We had to do something. We couldn’t let it go any further,” said Dr. Babak “Bobby” Eghbalieh. (Anderson, 4/7)