Vol.97 No.2 contentsPRACTICA OTO-RHINO-LARYNGOLOGICA
Vol. 97 No. 2 February 2004
Experience of Superselective Intraarterial
Chemotherapy in Head and Neck Cancers
Kensaku Hasegawa, Yuko Yamamoto, Takema Sakota, Hiromi Takeuchi,
Hideyuki Kataoka, Eiji Takeuchi and Hiroya Kitano
(Tottori University School of Medicine)
Eiken Matsuda
(Yoka Public Hospital)
Yasufumi Ohuchi and Toshio Kaminou
(Tottori University School of Medicine)
Hiroaki Nakatani and Taizo Takeda
(Kochi University School of Medicine)
Internal-arterial chemotherapy was performed in 13 patients with head and neck cancers. We used a retrograde catheter to infuse antineoplastic agents. The tip of the catheter was led selectively into the main feeding artery of the tumor via superficial temporal artery and/or occipital artery. In this study, 4 cases had undergone operational procedures after chemotherapy with or without conventional external-beam radiotherapy and 8 cases were treated with chemoradiotherapy alone. The other 1 case received chemoradiotherapy after a non-curative operation.
In this study, 11 of the 13 patients completed all therapeutic regimens. The median duration of follow-up was 23.6 months and there was no apparent reccurence in 9 (81.2％) of the 11 patients. One patient died of disease and 1 patient remained alive with disease. There were 10 events of under grade II toxicity and 2 patients died in the following period (grade V).
These results demonstrate that, if the indications are appropriate, internal-arterial chemoradiotherapy is effective, with confirmed organ preservation in patients with head and neck cancers.
Key words : superselective intraarterial chemotherapy, head and neck cancer, toxicity, reservoir system