For the first time at Northwestern Medicine, physicians used a specialized delivery system to administer melphalan — an FDA‑approved chemotherapy — directly to the liver to treat a patient with uveal melanoma, a rare eye cancer, that spread to the liver.

This system allows doctors to deliver significantly higher doses of melphalan directly to liver tumors from metastatic uveal melanoma than would be possible with standard treatment methods.

Liver Tumors Are Common With Rare Eye Cancer

Uveal melanoma makes up only about 5% of all melanoma cases in the United States, but nearly half of patients will later develop liver cancer. Once uveal melanoma cancer spreads to other parts of the body, it can be difficult to treat with standard therapies.

“This type of therapy has been shown to prolong survival for patients while also offering a very tolerable side effect profile, which are two things we want to prioritize,” says Sunandana Chandra, MD, medical director for melanoma and cutaneous oncology at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University. “It’s especially meaningful to have a therapy that helps us maintain a good quality of life for patients as we navigate a cancer that can be quite challenging to treat.”

It Feels Good To Be First

In April 2025, Bozena Wojtach, 66, of Niles, Illinois, became the first Northwestern Medicine patient with uveal melanoma to receive the treatment.

How It Works

• During the procedure, interventional radiologists use small tubes to temporarily separate the liver’s blood supply from the rest of the body.
• Chemotherapy is then delivered directly to the liver for about 30 minutes.
• Once chemotherapy is finished, the separated blood supply is filtered for an additional half hour before being returned to the patient’s body.

“This process removes more than 80% of the chemotherapy drug from the blood before it reenters the body,” says Robert Lewandowski, MD , director of interventional oncology at Lurie Cancer Center. “Because of that, we can treat liver tumors more aggressively while reducing exposure to the rest of the body.”

A Former Nurse With a Passion for Helping Others

Bozena was born in Kraków, Poland. Before becoming a nurse, she spent her youth flying planes and skydiving. She moved to the United States in 1986, later raising twin sons and caring for patients in cardiology and oncology, as well as pediatric patients, in Chicago until retiring in 2022.

In 2024, Bozena noticed flashing lights in her vision. An optometrist found a mass in her right eye and referred her to Randy Christopher Bowen, MD, a Northwestern Medicine ophthalmologist, who diagnosed her with uveal melanoma.

Her treatment plan included proton therapy. Doctors have used proton therapy to treat melanoma since the 1970s because it can target tumors without removing the eye and with less damage to the cornea, lens, retina, fovea or optic nerve. It successfully treated Bozena’s eye tumor, but later scans revealed the cancer had spread to her liver.

Because the tumors affected less than half of her liver, Bozena qualified for the specialized therapy.

Strong Early Results

If needed, patients can receive up to six cycles of the therapy every six to eight weeks. However, after two cycles, Bozena’s tumors had shrunk by more than 50%.

“I feel energetic and free of the pain and nausea I saw in many patients receiving standard chemotherapy during my time as an oncology nurse,” says Bozena. “I feel like I’m healthy — like I don’t have cancer at all.”

Her care team recommends she continue with at least four total cycles. She hopes to return to traveling, gardening and spending time with her family.

“It has taken a big commitment from the health system and a significant team effort to bring this new therapy to patients,” says Dr. Lewandowski. “With collaboration from interventional radiology, medical oncology, anesthesia, perfusion and many others, we are excited to provide new hope for patients who otherwise have limited options.”