Python recovers after first known use of cancer therapy in a snake

A 4.5-metre reticulated python at Chester Zoo is eating and behaving normally again after receiving electrochemotherapy, a cancer treatment commonly used in human medicine. A recent examination found no signs that her malignant jaw tumour had returned.

Keepers first noticed that the 23-year-old snake, named Jodie Foster, was eating less and becoming less active. Veterinarians removed a fibrosarcoma, but it grew back and began invading her jawbone, making further surgery alone unlikely to succeed. Working with cancer specialists at the University of Liverpool, the zoo team adapted electrochemotherapy for reptile anatomy in what they believe was the treatment’s first use in a snake.

During a 90-minute procedure, the team removed the tumour and part of the diseased jawbone, then administered the drug bleomycin alongside controlled electrical pulses. The pulses temporarily made remaining cancer cells more permeable, helping the medicine enter them more effectively.

Months later, the python can still strike, grip and swallow food without difficulty despite losing part of her jawbone. The specialists plan to publish details of the procedure so veterinarians elsewhere can learn from the approach and potentially build on it for other animals.