2018 年 3 巻 3 号 p. 110-114
Purpose: To evaluate the origin of feeding arteries in recurrent tongue cancers under treatment with intra-arterial infusion chemotherapy (IAIC).
Material and Methods: Eleven patients who underwent IAIC for recurrent tongue cancer at our institute between January 2007 and August 2017 were enrolled. Two patients received a second IAIC treatment for tumor recurrence after the first round of IAIC. Thus, 13 recurrent tongue tumors were evaluated. The main and accompanying feeding arteries were identified on super-selective angiography of the branches of the external carotid artery.
Results: The main feeding artery was the ipsilateral lingual artery (LA) in 7 of the 13 (54%) tumors, the contralateral LA in 3 (24%) tumors, and the ipsilateral superior thyroid artery (STA) in 3 (24%) tumors. Feeding was detected from the ipsilateral LA in 12 of the 13 tumors (92%), from the contralateral LA in 8 (62%), from the ipsilateral facial artery (FA) in 3 (23%), from the contralateral FA in 1 (8%), from the ipsilateral STA in 3 (23%), from the contralateral STA in 2 (15%), and from the artery anastomosed to a flap in 2 (15%). Three tumors (23%) had only 1 feeding artery, and multiple feeders were detected in the remaining 10 (77%). Of the 10 tumors with multiple feeding arteries, 4 tumors had 2 feeding arteries, 4 tumors had 3 feeding arteries, and the other 2 tumors had 4 feeding arteries.
Conclusions: Recurrent tongue cancers are often supplied by multiple feeding arteries. A careful search for feeding arteries including the STA is required.
