World-first cancer treatment saves Chester Zoo python

World-first cancer treatment saves 15-foot python at Chester Zoo

Chester Zoo vets and University of Liverpool cancer specialists adapted electrochemotherapy for a snake for the first time, leaving 50kg python Jodie cancer-free and eating normally again.

Chester Zoo veterinary team treating Jodie the reticulated python Image: University of Liverpool / Chester ZooOriginal source

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A 15-foot reticulated python at Chester Zoo has made a full recovery after receiving what is believed to be the world’s first use of electrochemotherapy in a snake.

Jodie, a 50kg python, developed a fibrosarcoma in her jaw. When the tumour returned after surgery and began damaging the bone, zoo vets worked with cancer specialists at the University of Liverpool to adapt a more commonly used in human medicine.

The team removed the affected tissue and part of the jaw before using controlled electrical pulses to help the chemotherapy drug enter remaining cancer cells more effectively.

Months later, Jodie is cancer-free, eating normally and back to her usual behaviour. The team now plans to publish the procedure so other veterinary specialists can learn from it. There was, incidentally, no snake-sized operating table, so two ordinary ones had to be pushed together. Medicine occasionally requires excellent science and surprisingly practical furniture arrangements.