Chapter 28: The Portable Infusion Pump: Some Background on Intra-arterial Therapy
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Description
Dr. Levin sketches the beginnings of intra-arterial therapy, noting that there was no good systemic therapy for colorectal cancer that had spread to the liver. 5-Fluorouracil had been studied, and researchers at MD Anderson and other institutions were interested in delivery high doses of drugs, such as floxuridine (FUDR) to the liver by placing a catheter in the hepatic artery. Dr. Levin sketches the technical problems with this, noting that this method was a precursor to the design of a portable infusion pump.
[Technical problems with the audio recording are briefly discussed and the interview is terminated, to be resumed in another session.]
Identifier
LevinB_04_20130708_C28
Publication Date
7-8-2013
City
Houston, Texas
Interview Session
Topics Covered
The Interview Subject's Story - The Researcher The Researcher Overview Definitions, Explanations, Translations Professional Practice The Professional at Work
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Disciplines
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Oncology | Oral History
Transcript
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
(The recorder is paused.) Okay, so it is about 10:36, and we’ve paused just for about a quick minute. And Javier Garza has joined us. He is going to take a quick listen to the recorder as we are doing this. So Dr. Levin, what would make sense to talk about next? We—having talked about intra-arterial therapy and then vaccines. Or did you have something else in mind to continue this story?
Bernard Levin, MD:
No, I think—I think that—I don’t recall vaccines being a big part of what I said.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Okay.
Bernard Levin, MD:
I think I could think of how I might have used it, but I certainly had no personal involvement with vaccines.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Okay. Did you want to continue with intra-arterial therapy then?
Bernard Levin, MD:
Yeah. I assume there’s a complete gap there?
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Yes.
Bernard Levin, MD:
Okay. All right. That’s fine. Let’s begin at that beginning.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Okay.
Bernard Levin, MD:
While I was at the University of Chicago, one of the many problems confronting us as well as everyone else in the field was that the treatment of colorectal cancer that had spread to the liver was extremely difficult because multiple times the metastasis were not surgically removable. There were many, and we couldn’t remove them even if they were easily removed. There were just so many of them that it wouldn’t work because we would destroy the person’s liver. So it was quite interesting. And the other problem was that there was no really good effective systemic therapy. The one drug that had been in existence then for perhaps twenty-odd years—twenty-five years was 5-Fluorouracil. And this drug was administered in a variety of ways, mostly intravenously. But it had relatively little effect on liver metastasis. There had been interest at MD Anderson and in other places in trying to deliver higher concentrations of 5-Fluorouracil or a related drug called FUDR into the liver by placing a catheter into the hepatic artery and slowly infusing into the liver this drug FUDR—as well as some other drugs had been tried. But the particular problems were that to get this catheter into the hepatic artery and leave it there was not practical because it implied the person would be lying in bed essentially for days and days. It was not consistent with a normal lifestyle, nor was it economically very feasible. So about this time the idea came about designing a portable infusion pump that would be placed under the skin of the abdomen with a catheter leading from the infusion pump into the hepatic artery. So I’m going to stop for a minute and ask you, is the sound okay?
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Okay, let me just do a quick check with Javier. And there are times when it disappears for like 10 seconds. I’m unsure whether there is an issue. Let me just turn off the recorder. Hang on just a minute. It is 10:40, and we’re turning off the recorder for a moment.
Bernard Levin, MD:
It’s fine with me.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
(The recorder is paused.) All right, we had the recorder off for about 4 minutes discussing some technical issues. Javier and Dr. Levin and I have decided that we are going to terminate the interview for today so that we can check out the interview quality. So I am turning off the unit at 10:45. And thank you very much, Dr. Levin, for your patience with all of this.
Bernard Levin, MD:
Thanks a lot. I will talk to you soon.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Okay. Bye, bye.
Bernard Levin, MD:
Bye, bye. Thank you. Bye Javier. (End of Audio One Session Four)
Recommended Citation
Levin, Bernard MD and Rosolowski, Tacey A. PhD, "Chapter 28: The Portable Infusion Pump: Some Background on Intra-arterial Therapy" (2013). Interview Chapters. 1364.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/1364
Conditions Governing Access
Open
