By Jac Perry

GUAM - Guam's healthcare professionals can look forward to gaining a great deal of knowledge and will be introduced to the latest and most efficient methods for treating cancers.

The 4th Micronesia Medical Symposium will be held October 9 through 11, 2009 at the Guam Marriott Resort. The event, dedicated to "Cancer in the Islands," is sponsored by the Guam Medical Society, the Guam Naval Hospital and the Department of Public Health and Social Services.

A guest surgeon from Belgium, Dr. W. Celeen will share his expertise in intraperitoneal chemotherapy that has resulted in excellent results for cancer patients from Guam.

Dr. Sam Friedman, President of the Guam Medical Society and cancer specialist, recommended to some of his patients to visit Dr. Celeen after they had specific cancer problems that could only be addressed at highly specialized centers.

Celeen's intraperitoneal or IP chemotherapy infusion method first requires the meticulous resection (surgical removal) of all visible tumors that have spread to the belly area in patients who suffer from ovarian, colon or perhaps other cancers. After successful removal of all visible tumors, heated chemotherapy is then infused through the belly area.

The chemotherapy is "instilled at 41 degrees C (105.8 degrees F) and flows through the belly for 90 minutes. The patient's abdomen is then closed," Friedman said.

"It is quite a controversial procedure, some variations of this having been done in the past without too much success," Friedman explained. "However, with the newer, standardized techniques, the results have been very favorable and a recent French study using the same procedure has shown a definite survival benefit with colon cancers treated in this fashion. Ovarian cancer is even a better responder. Duke (North Carolina) Medical Center is the only US center currently using a similar procedure," he added.

Troubling for Friedman is that one local insurance company does not want to fund Celeen's treatment method and instead prefers to send patients to the Philippines or the U.S. for treatment, where this therapy is not available. "Although the hospital charges (in Gent, Belgium) are a small fraction compared to U.S. charges and compare favorably to the prices in the Philippines," Friedman said.

He added, "Change and improvement apparently does not come easily to Guam."

"There have been four patients from Guam who have been treated in Gent. One was not able to be completely resected and hence the IP chemotherapy was not given. The other three are doing very well," Dr. Friedman said.

According to Friedman, "Celeen does only 1 or 2 cases per week, and spends the entire day (12 hours) in the operating room with a single patient, painstakingly dissecting out all visible disease before the IP chemotherapy," he said.

"I scrubbed into one such procedure and I don't think there was more than a tablespoonful of blood lost during the entire surgery, both abdominal and thoracic. In another Guam patient, there were two surgical oncologists, a thoracic surgeon, a gynecology surgeon and a plastic surgeon all into the case at different times. It is a real professional operation. I was surprised that I could not find anything during the hospitalization of the one patient I observed that I thought could be done better."

Dr. Celeen will speak at the 4th Micronesia Medical Symposium next month.

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