- Brenda Iveson, a 92-year-old great-grandmother from Harrogate, North Yorkshire, has become the first person in the UK to receive pioneering robotic-guided electrochemotherapy for an inoperable six-centimetre liver tumour.
- Initially, Mrs Iveson was informed that conventional cancer therapies, including surgery, chemotherapy , and radiotherapy , would be ineffective due to the tumour's location and her frailty.
- Medics at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust offered the minimally invasive treatment, which combines a small dose of chemotherapy with targeted electrical pulses, precisely guided by robotic needles.
- This method, which does not use heat and allows for safe treatment near vital structures, marks the first time robotic guidance has been used for electrochemotherapy in a liver in the UK.
- Following the treatment, Mrs Iveson's tumour has shrunk by approximately 80 per cent, and she reports feeling very well, with the treatment offering hope where there were previously no options.
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