Jm. Rebibou et al., COMBINED CHEMOTHERAPY AND RADIOTHERAPY FOR ESOPHAGEAL-CARCINOMA IN A HEMODIALYZED PATIENT - LONG-TERM SURVIVAL, Nephron, 74(3), 1996, pp. 611-612
The use of antimitotic chemotherapy in hemodialysis patients is not ye
t well codified, and each individual decision remains difficult. We re
port the case of a 68-year-old hemodialyzed man who developed a squamo
us cell carcinoma of the upper third of the esophagus. Necessarily dis
abling surgery was rejected, and three courses of combined radio- and
chemotherapy with 5-fluorouracil and cis-platinum were performed witho
ut decreasing standard doses. The percentage of drugs removed during h
emodialysis sessions was low; peak and residual platinum plasma concen
trations were only slightly above those observed in normal renal funct
ion patients. The treatment was perfectly well tolerated, and tumor re
sponse was satisfactory without any relapse for 3 years. This observat
ion suggests that hemodialysis patients could benefit from such 'full
therapies', if necessary, without major adverse effects.