Insidious cranberry disease started with elevated heartburn – saved by complex operation

“I noticed that I did not eat the usual food ration, I always feel tired, sleepy,” begins the young story about her illness.

For several months, the woman felt that a stressful lifestyle was to blame for her discomfort.

“I started taking medicine for stomach acid, but it didn’t help,” he says. – After a while I felt pain in my left side and then in my back. Even then I didn’t suspect anything bad, I thought it would go away on its own. “

Since the pain didn’t stop and only got worse over time, Žydrė decided to see a GP.

“I had blood tests and an ultrasound, during which I saw a lot of enlarged lymph nodes. I consulted a doctor and came to the Kaunas clinics without expecting anything, ”the woman opens.

He was diagnosed with stage III gastric cancer at the Kaunas clinics.

“Thorough examinations of the patient’s health revealed that the tumor had been in contact with the blood vessels of the pancreas and spleen. It was also found that the lymph nodes near the stomach covered the disease, ”says prof. Linas Venclauskas.

To shrink the tumor, Zydra receives preoperative chemotherapy.

“I was nauseous and tired during it, but then I was able to breathe easier because the research showed that the treatment worked,” she recalls.

According to prof. After repeating the research after the last course of chemotherapy, L. Venclauskas found that the malignant tumor in the stomach and the damaged lymph nodes had decreased. Therefore, considering the young age of the patient and the aggressive course of the disease, it was decided to perform complex surgery and high temperature abdominal chemotherapy (HIPEC).

“During the operation, the stomach, spleen and part of the pancreas were removed. To prevent postoperative inflammation, the gallbladder and the growth of worms have also been removed ”, explains the professor about the complexity of the operation.

With HIPEC, the surgical procedure lasted 7 hours, but the treatment was successful.

“After the operation and the improvement in general well-being, the patient went to rehabilitation, followed by four more cycles of chemotherapy to reduce the risk of disease progression. 7 months after treatment, the control studies did not show recurrence or spread of the tumor, ”says the abdominal surgeon.

It points out that in the case of a locally advanced tumor and, in the case of Newcastle disease, gastric cancer, surgical treatment with the HIPEC procedure significantly prolongs the life of patients and improves their quality.

The HIPEC treatment method is most commonly used to treat gastrointestinal or ovarian tumors that spread to the surface of internal organs or even adjacent organs, as well as to spread the tumor in the abdominal cavity.

According to Kaunas Clinic Surgery Clinic Abdominal Surgery Doctor prof. After Žilvinas Dambrauskas, even after the visible tumor has been completely removed, the cancer cells remain in the abdominal cavity, which in the long term can cause recurrence of the disease or spread of the tumor to other organs (metastasis) . To eradicate these cancer cells, a HIPEC procedure is performed.

“At the end of the operation, a liquid heated to a temperature of 41 to 43 degrees with a chemotherapeutic agent is injected into the abdominal cavity, which circulates in a special circulating device for about 90 minutes. This procedure ensures that higher doses of the drug enter the abdominal cavity and, at higher temperatures, cancer cells are more sensitive to the drug being administered. Meanwhile, intravenous chemotherapeutic agents enter in small concentrations and this reduces the risk of toxicity from systemic chemotherapy ”, explains prof. Ž. Dambrauskas.

He adds that the higher temperature allows better results because circulating fluid from the abdominal cavity leaks into the circulatory system, so some of the tumor cells are collected and removed during the procedure. Because cancer cells die at a temperature of 40 degrees, and when healthy cells reach around 44 degrees, they are minimally affected.

“It is a complex and lengthy treatment method, full of challenges not only for the medical team, but also for the patient. According to the scientific literature, operations with the HIPEC procedure can prolong the life expectancy of patients and cure serious oncological diseases ”, says the head of the Oncology Department of the Oncology and Hematology Clinic, chemotherapist oncologist doc. Rasa Jančiauskienė.

At this point, Žydrė feels fine, has returned to work and a normal rhythm of life.

“It took me time to recover, I had to learn to eat and drink again. The second chemotherapy was easier because he knew what to expect, he wasn’t hiding. – I thank the abdominal surgery doctor prof. Dr. L. Venclauskui, prof. Ž. Dambrauskas, doc. A. Daukša and the entire team of doctors who operated on me and the kind nurses. “

The reason for the success of the treatment is teamwork and active cooperation between doctors of different specializations. It is important to ensure not only the proper functioning of the equipment in the operating room, but also supervision in the postoperative period.

Abdominal surgery doctors from the Kaunas Surgery Clinic participated in this procedure prof. L. Venclauskas, prof. Ž. Dambrauskas, surgeon doc. Albertas Daukša, Clinic of Oncology and Hematology chemotherapist oncologist doc. R. Jančiauskienė and Dainora Mačiulienė, team of anesthesiologists, resuscitators and perfusiologists of the Clinic of Anesthesiology.

This method of treatment of oncological diseases was introduced in the Kaunas clinics in 2020. During this year 22 surgeries with the HIPEC procedure were performed in patients with rare diseases (mesothelioma, pseudomyxoma) or recurrence of ovarian cancer, colon.

“The greatest uniqueness of the Kaunas clinics is the possibility of applying HIPEC for the treatment of locally advanced gastric cancer”, emphasizes prof. Ž. Dambrauskas. Some of the patients in the Kaunas clinics are young and have an aggressive form of gastric cancer, so the goal is to apply all the most innovative treatment methods that help them recover.