Patients with advanced cancer in their arms or legs often face amputation, but a technique that channels the chemotherapy directly to the tumor is saving patient's lives and limbs.
It's called isolated limb infusion or ILI.
For 20 years, Krissy Loch had a mass on her left forearm, she shrugged it off as a muscular problem. Then, she got pregnant.
"When I got pregnant, it started to grow more rapidly. I guess the hormones in my body, and it hurt," said Loch.
Krissy was diagnosed with advanced sarcoma; a cancer of the soft tissue. Her first doctor recommended she terminate the pregnancy and amputate the arm.
Determined to save both, Loch went to oncology specialist Dr. Vadim Gushchin, he suggested a technique called isolated limb infusion.
Doctors thread a catheter through the groin or armpit to the cancer, and put a tourniquet just above the catheter tip.
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"It basically isolates the extremity from the rest of the circulation so the very toxic drugs do not get into the system," said Gushchin.
The drugs are pumped into the region for 30 minutes, just once. Then the tourniquet must come off to prevent damage to healthy tissue.
"We did the procedure, the tumor shrunk. It shrunk enough to be excised completely with negative margins," said Gushchin.
Five months after ILI, Loch delivered Daisy, a full-term and perfectly healthy baby girl.
"She's just everything. She's my best friend," Loch said of Daisy who is now three years old.
Loch gets scans every six months to monitor the cancer, and remains cancer-free.
A recent study by the Journal of the American College of Surgeons found a nearly 80 percent rate of limb preservation with the chemotherapy technique.
