[Superselective intra-arterial infusion therapy with docetaxel, cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil for head and neck cancer--for tongue cancer patients in comparison patients with other therapies].

In order to cure head and neck cancer without resection, chemotherapy (superselective intra-arterial infusion therapy with DCF) was conducted by anterograde, superselective intra-arterial infusion of 50-60 mg/m(2) of DOC and 50-60 mg/m(2) of CDDP via the femoral artery on day 1 followed by continuous intravenous instillation of 600-750 mg/m(2)/day of 5-FU for 5 days from day 2. A total of 70 patients with advanced and recurrent cancer of the head and neck have been treated since April 2000. With the median follow-up duration of 1,017 days, the survival rate was 92.7% and the organ preservation rate was 90.1%. Almost no complications associated with this therapy were observed. Due to space limitations, here we report only cases of tongue cancer. Histological CR was obtained from all 19 patients with squamous cell cancer of the tongue. With the median follow-up duration of 1,371 days (45.7 months: 471-2, 133 days), the survival rate was 94.74% and the organ preservation rate was 88.42% by the Kaplan-Meier method. For both the survival rate and organ preservation rate, extremely good results were obtained by the superselective intra-arterial infusion therapy with DCF compared to the intravenous infusion therapy using a combination of CDDP and 5-FU (five-year survival rate: 20%) as well as the superselective intra-arterial infusion of CDDP alone followed by continuous intravenous infusion of 5-FU (five year survival rate: 28.5%) that had been conducted before. Major adverse effects observed were leukopenia and alopecia. Although patients who underwent concurrent radiation therapy developed mucositis and dermatitis, both were reversible changes.