2026年7月25日 / 美国东部时间上午8:05 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
埃尔南多·萨尔塞多2025年5月发现自己胃部肿胀时颇感意外。这位83岁的祖父向来身体健康、精力充沛。最近他有些髋部疼痛，但以为只是年纪大了的正常状况。肿胀来得毫无征兆，也找不到明确原因。
他去看了医生，但内镜超声没能查出疼痛和肿胀的根源。他被转诊给肠胃科医生，对方安排了核磁共振成像。两天后，他收到了毁灭性的诊断结果：III期胰腺癌。
“听到这个诊断结果时，我整个人都崩溃了，”萨尔塞多告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻。据美国癌症协会数据，大多数III期胰腺癌患者确诊后仅能存活数月，五年生存率仅为15%。手术可以有效切除肿瘤，但萨尔塞多不符合手术指征。当时唯一可用的治疗方案是强化化疗，目的仅为延长寿命，而非治愈癌症。
2025年7月，他在迈阿密癌症研究所开始接受化疗，却很快出现了严重的副作用。他吃不下东西，体重骤降。他的儿子毛里西奥说，父亲从前每天早上都会步行2到3英里，后来却连家门都几乎没法踏出。
“我从没见过爸爸卧床这么久，连起身都做不到，”毛里西奥说道。
萨尔塞多饱受疼痛折磨，状况往往比确诊前更糟。从前他只是偶尔不适，如今却几乎无法自理。
“最轻松的决定”
就在萨尔塞多艰难熬过化疗期间，他的病例被提交给迈阿密癌症研究所的专家小组。负责治疗萨尔塞多的放射科医师、肿瘤学家里帕尔·甘地博士表示，这类小组会讨论包括临床试验在内的创新治疗方案。
小组认定萨尔塞多符合参与一项临床试验的条件，该试验正在测试医疗公司RenovoRX研发的新型化疗给药装置。常规化疗通常通过静脉给药，药物会扩散至全身。但甘地解释道：“胰腺癌组织致密，供血量极少，因此常规化疗方法下，大量药物根本无法抵达肿瘤部位。”
RenovoRX的RenovoCath系统于2014年首次获得美国食品药品监督管理局批准使用，旨在更精准地递送化疗药物。一根带有两个球囊的导管会被置入肿瘤附近的动脉。通过导管将化疗药物直接输送到离肿瘤尽可能近的位置，同时用球囊阻断该动脉的血流。
此前的研究显示，这套系统能减轻患者的副作用。甘地表示，2023年在胃肠道癌症患者世界大会上公布的临床试验数据显示，接受导管给药疗法的患者，不良反应比接受传统化疗的患者少65%。他还说，通过导管接受化疗的参与者生存期延长了六个月。
“因为我们将化疗药物隔离起来，真正进入全身循环的药物极少，”甘地解释道，“药物会精准集中在癌症病灶处，几乎不会有化疗药物波及身体其他器官。”
当萨尔塞多得知这项临床试验时，他毫不犹豫地同意参与。毛里西奥称这是父亲抗癌历程中“最轻松的决定”。
“这项治疗救了我的生活”
临床试验参与者先接受两个月的标准化疗，随后接受放疗和额外一轮化疗。这些疗程结束后，影像检查显示萨尔塞多的癌症没有进展。这意味着他终于符合接受导管给药疗法的条件。甘地表示，萨尔塞多和其他试验患者被随机分组，部分人接受标准化疗，另一部分人尝试这套新系统。
萨尔塞多属于接受RenovoCath导管化疗的组别。接下来的四个月里，他每两周接受一次治疗。
萨尔塞多说，这和他之前接受传统化疗的体验简直天差地别。每次治疗结束后，他“第二天就感觉挺好”，“没有恶心，没有疼痛，什么不适都没有。这项治疗救了我的生活。”
萨尔塞多并不是唯一状况好转的试验患者。甘地的一位患者确诊后存活了四年，他称这在这种疾病中“简直闻所未闻”。
“通常来说，III期胰腺癌是我们无法治愈的，”甘地说，“但我们（为萨尔塞多）的目标是在提升他生活质量的同时延长预期寿命。我可以自信地说，我们确实保住了他的生活质量。”
RenovoRX的一位发言人表示，该装置已获得美国食品药品监督管理局批准。更多研究正在进行中，针对III期胰腺癌的RenovoCath最终试验数据预计将于2027年底发布。
“仿佛中了彩票”
确诊一年后，萨尔塞多已经创造了奇迹。甘地表示，自4月中旬以来，他的癌症病情一直保持稳定，也没有扩散到其他器官，这让甘地和萨尔塞多的其他主治医生“都非常开心”。
多出来的时间和提升的生活质量，让萨尔塞多得以参与家庭的重要时刻，包括前往哥伦比亚参加侄子的婚礼。他说自己整晚都在跳舞，“感觉棒极了”。
毛里西奥说，他和父亲都没有抱有不切实际的幻想：萨尔塞多已经83岁，III期胰腺癌的预后依然不佳。但毛里西奥表示，多出来的这几个月就是一份礼物。萨尔塞多已经恢复了日常散步，还计划更多的旅行。
“我们不知道还能有多少时间，但我们知道他体重在回升，精力也恢复了，头脑清醒，还在规划未来，”毛里西奥说，“对于一位83岁的老人来说，还有什么比让他开心更重要的呢？这种感觉就像中了彩票。”
A grandfather struggled with treatment for late-stage pancreatic cancer — until a clinical trial helped him beat the odds
July 25, 2026 / 8:05 AM EDT / CBS News
Hernando Salcedo was surprised when he noticed his stomach swelling in May 2025. The 83-year-old grandfather had always been healthy and active. He’d had some hip pain recently, but thought it was his age. The swelling came out of nowhere and didn’t have a clear cause.
He visited his doctor, but an endoscopic ultrasound wasn’t able to identify the cause of his pain and swelling. He was referred to a gastroenterologist, who ordered an MRI. Two days later, he received a devastating diagnosis: Stage III pancreatic cancer.
“It was very hard” to hear that diagnosis, Salcedo told CBS News. Most Stage III pancreatic cancer patients survive just months after being diagnosed, with a five-year survival rate of just 15%, according to the American Cancer Society. Surgery can be effective in removing the cancer, but Salcedo wasn’t a candidate for such a procedure. The only available treatment option was aggressive chemotherapy aimed at extending his life, not curing the cancer.
He began chemotherapy at the Miami Cancer Institute in July 2025, only to quickly suffer severe side effects. He couldn’t eat and lost weight. His son Mauricio said his father went from someone who would walk 2 or 3 miles every morning to a man who could barely leave the house.
“I’ve never seen my dad in bed for that amount of time, where he can’t even get up,” Mauricio said.
Salcedo was in pain and often felt worse than he had before his diagnosis. Previously, he was uncomfortable. But now he was barely able to function.
Hernando Salcedo with his family. Hernando Salcedo
“The easiest decision”
While Salcedo was struggling through chemotherapy, his case was presented to an expert panel at Miami Cancer Institute. These panels allow for discussion of innovative treatments, including clinical trials, said Dr. Ripal Gandhi, the radiologist and oncologist who treated Salcedo.
The panel determined Salcedo was a candidate for a clinical trial that was testing a new chemotherapy delivery device from medical company RenovoRX. Typically, chemo is administered intravenously, spreading through the whole body. But “pancreatic cancer has dense tissue, and there’s not a lot of blood supply to it, and therefore a lot of the chemo doesn’t get” to the actual tumor with this method, Gandhi explained.
RenovoRX’s RenovoCath system, which was first cleared for use by the FDA in 2014, aims to deliver the chemotherapy more precisely. A catheter with two balloons is placed in the artery nearest the tumor. The catheter is used to deliver chemotherapy as close as possible to the tumor, while the balloons isolate its blood flow.
Previous research showed the system reduced side effects for patients. Clinical trial data presented at the World Congress of GI Cancer Patients in 2023 showed 65% fewer adverse effects for patients treated with the catheter method versus those who received traditional chemotherapy, Gandhi said. Participants who received the chemotherapy via catheter also saw a six-month increase in survival, Gandhi said.
“Because you’re isolating the chemotherapy, there is very little drug which is actually going through the body,” Gandhi explained. “The drug is really being localized to the site of the cancer and there’s very little chemotherapy that’s making it to all the rest of your organs.”
When the trial was presented to Salcedo, he didn’t hesitate to say yes. Mauricio called it “the easiest decision” of his father’s cancer journey.
Hernando Salcedo, center, surrounded by family. Hernando Salcedo
“This treatment fixed my life”
Trial participants receive standard chemotherapy for two months, followed by radiation and an additional chemotherapy session. After those cycles, imaging showed Salcedo’s cancer hadn’t progressed. That meant he was finally eligible for the catheter delivery method. Salcedo and other trial patients were randomized, with some receiving the standard chemotherapy and some trying the new system.
Salcedo was among those who received the chemotherapy with RenovoCath, Gandhi said. He underwent treatment every other week for the next four months.
It was like night and day from his experience with traditional chemotherapy, Salcedo said. He “felt fine the next day” after receiving each treatment, he said. “I didn’t feel nausea. I didn’t feel pain. I didn’t feel nothing. This treatment fixed my life.”
Salcedo wasn’t the only trial patient to feel better. One patient of Gandhi’s survived four years after her diagnosis, which he said is “really unheard of in this disease.”
“Generally, Stage III pancreatic cancer is not something we can cure,” Gandhi said. “But our goal [for Salcedo] is that we want to increase life expectancy, while maintaining his quality of life. And I could say confidently we did maintain his quality of life.”
The device has been cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, a RenovoRX spokesperson said. More research is ongoing, and the final trial data of the RenovoCath for Stage III pancreatic cancer is expected to be published in late 2027, the spokesperson said.
“Like you won the lottery”
One year after his diagnosis, Salcedo has already beaten the odds. Gandhi said that his cancer has been stable since mid-April. It has not spread to other organs, which Gandhi and Salcedo’s other doctors are “very happy about.”
That extra time and increased quality of life have let Salcedo take part in family milestones, including traveling to Colombia for his nephew’s wedding. He danced the night away, he said, and “felt perfect.”
Hernando Salcedo, left, at his nephew’s wedding. Hernando Salcedo
Mauricio said that neither he nor his father is under any illusions: Salcedo is 83 years old, and Stage III pancreatic cancer has a poor prognosis. But these extra months have been a gift, Mauricio said. Salcedo has resumed his regular walks and is planning even more travel.
“We don’t know how long, but we know he’s gaining weight, his energy levels are back, his mind’s correct, and he’s thinking about the future,” Mauricio said. “What else do you want for an 83-year-old man, other than that he’s happy? That feels like you won the lottery.”
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