Abstract
Maxillary sinus cancer usually is treated by radiotherapy, chemotherapy and surgery. In addition to this traditional combination therapy, we used a bleomycin-containing silicone foam placed in the space of operative wound for 7 days following surgery in 27 untreated maxillary sinus cancer patients for the purpose of coping with tumor cells remaining postoperatively. Silicone has a property of slowly releasing a drug it contains. The silicone preparation used was Q7-4290 Prosthetic Foam (Dow Corning). Tumor tissue levels of anticancer drug yielded by the use of the silicone foam were adequately high, being 1.5μg/g at Day 1, 4.6μg/g at Day 4 and 2.5μg/g at Day 7. During the follow-up observation period, which ranged from 7 to 36 months, there were 6 cases of a local recurrence of malignancy. Recurrence occurred within 6 months in 5 (19%) of 27 cases and between 6 and 12 months in 1 (6%) of 17 cases. Of 10 cases who have been followed up for more than 2 years, none had a recurrence or re-recurrence later than one year after receiving the therapeutic procedure.
