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New treatment stops Haverhill man's cancer 'in its tracks'
February 21, 2010 | The Eagle Tribune Online
Haverhill, MA - When doctors told Dean Lafitt he had cancer, he was devastated and upset.
"I felt I was doomed," said Lafitt, 47, of Haverhill. "They told me I had seven months to live if I didn't take the chemo, and two years with it. I dropped to my knees and prayed, 'We can't do this alone.'"
Lafitt's prayer was answered when oncologist Dr. Pedro Sanz-Altamira and interventional radiologist Dr. Mario Torres-Leon, of Commonwealth Hematology Oncology at Lawrence General Hospital told him that he could be a candidate for chemoembolization.
In that procedure, doctors use a catheter to inject chemotherapy directly into the cancerous area, in an effort to keep the cancer from growing and spreading.
"It's very concentrated," Torres-Leon said. "It's a lot of medicine in a limited territory, so no drugs go beyond that."
Lafitt, who suffers from stage four colorectal cancer, became the first patient in the Merrimack Valley to have the hour-long surgery at Lawrence General Hospital.
The procedure was a team effort between Lawrence General and Massachusetts General Hospital. It was headed by Sanz-Altamira and Torres-Leon, with help from Judy Davoli, clinical manager of the medical surgical/oncology unit, Chris Lees, assistant head nurse in the unit, pharmacists and technologists.
But it was not a first for the two doctors.
Sanz-Altamira has performed chemoembolization many times at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and even wrote a paper on the procedure, using the experience of 40 patients.
Torres-Leon had also done the surgery dozens of times at Massachusetts General Hospital. Sanz-Altamira said Lafitt was a good candidate for chemoembolization because he is young and in relatively good health to tolerate the surgery.
"You don't have to be perfect, but you need a lot of pain medication and need good functioning kidneys to eliminate the by-products," he said.
Instead of feeling side effects like nausea or high fever, Lafitt was asking nurses for ice cream hours after his surgery. He was only in the hospital for three days.
"That's how outstanding of a candidate he was. He made the procedure easy, if you can call it that," Sanz-Altamira said.
Lafitt said he's glad he had the chemoembolization.
"It was a positive because it stopped it (the cancer) in its tracks," he said.
Born in Lowell, Lafitt was raised in North Andover. He graduated from North Andover High School in 1980.
In addition to chemotherapy, he and his wife of 14 years, Vivian, use holistic medicine, eat organic food and make juices from raw vegetables and fruits.
"We don't want to get away from traditional medicine, but we want to build the body's immune system," Vivian Lafitt said.
In addition to the support from the doctors at Lawrence General, Lafitt and his wife said they found a lot of strength when they joined Granite Baptist Church of Methuen and Salem, N.H.
Fellow members not only provided emotional and spiritual support, but made meals for the family. They also started a cancer support group with six people which now boasts 38 participants.