INTRAARTERIAL COMBINATION CHEMOTHERAPY WITH INTERFERON-BETA AND OTHERANTITUMOR AGENTS FOLLOWING HYPEROSMOTIC BLOOD-BRAIN-BARRIER OPENING FOR RECURRENT GLIOBLASTOMA-MULTIFORME

Intra-arterial combination chemotherapy with interferon-beta (HUlFN-be ta) and other antitumour agents following hyperosmotic blood-brain bar rier (BBB) opening was administered to lour patients with recurrent gl ioblastoma multiforme and poor performance status. Aii oi these patien ts had undergone previous subtotal or partial surgical removal, post-o perative synchronized chemoradiation therapy and subsequent maintenanc e therapy with ramnistine (MCNU). One patient with multiple recurrent tumours had a complete response to the HUlFN-beta combination therapy, and in another with multiple recurrent tumours, the size oi each tumo ur decreased. in both cases, the therapy had an effect within 2 weeks. Although bone marrow suppression, hyperpyrexia and renal dysfunction occurred as side-effects oi this therapy, they were transient and not as severe as those caused by intravenous injection of the same agents. These results were encouraging, and it is expected that this therapy could be useful for the treatment of patients with recurrent malignant gliomas.