[Study of combination chemotherapy with cytosine arabinoside in the intravesical treatment of superficial bladder tumors].

ABSTRACT

The effect of instillation therapy using CA alone or in combination with MMC, NCS or CQ was examined in 111 patients (92 males and 19 females, aged 32-87 years old with an average age of 66 years) with multiple superficial bladder tumors. The response rate of 29 patients given CA 400 mg alone was 48.3%, that of 25 patients given combination therapy of CA 200 mg and MMC 20 mg was 84.0%, that of 28 patients given combination therapy of CA 200 mg and NCS 4,000 U was 71.4%, that of 22 patients given combination therapy of CA 200 mg and NCS 6,000 U was 95.5% and that of 7 patients given combination therapy of CA 200 mg and CQ 10 mg was 100%. The response rates of the patients given any of the combination therapies were higher than that of the patients given CA alone. But because MMC, NCS and CQ were not administered singly, combination therapy cannot be concluded to be superior to single therapy. There was little difference between the response rate of primary cases and that of follow up cases. The side effects were all symptoms of local irritation, and were not indicative of systemic damage. Side effects were seen in 3.4%, 71.4%, 40.0% and 3.6% of the patients given CA alone, CA + CQ combination therapy, CA + MMC combination therapy and CA + NCS (4,000) therapy, respectively, combination therapy of CA and CQ producing the highest percentage of side effects.