Clinical evaluation of hepatic arterial infusion of low dose-CDDP and 5-FUwith hyperthermotherapy: A preliminary study for liver metastases from esophageal and gastric cancer

BAGKGROUND/AIMS: The prognosis for gastric and esophageal cancer patients w ith liver metastases remains very poor; In most cases, liver metastasis is unresectable because of its number, size and location and therefore, other approaches need do be considered. METHODOLOGY: In this study we examined 4 patients. We showed the therapeuti c benefits of employing hepatic arterial infusion of low-dose CDDP and 5-FU combined with hyperthermia for the treatment of liver metastases of gastri c and esophageal cancer. RESULTS: All patients showed partial response, and bone marrow toxicities a nd gastrointestinal toxicities were extremely slight while liver toxicities were not observed at all. Moreover, 3 of the patients excluding patient 3 who had metastatic lesions other than liver metastases have still been aliv e for more than 17 months (17-28 months) maintaining a good quality of life . CONCLUSIONS: Therefore, it is suggested that the merits of both low dose-FP and hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy contribute to ideal clinical ef fects, and that hyperthermotherapy could enhance clinical responses without ; potentiating any toxicities. However, this is just a preliminary study, a nd therefore, a prospective randomized control study is necessary to evalua te the efficiency of this therapy.