Abstract
To treat tongue cancer, we have been performing neo-adjuvant intra-arterial infusion therapy with multiple anti-cancer agents and booster chemotherapy (we named this technique booster chemotherapy rather than adjuvant chemotherapy because the same anti-cancer agents as in neo-adjuvant therapy are used). Good outcome have been achieved. We studied 48 newly diagnosed patients with tongue cancer treated with intra-arterial infusion therapy between 1988 and 1996 and 26 newly diagnosed patients with tongue cancer treated with radiotherapy before 1986. The complete remission (CR) rate and response rate were 52% and 92% respectively, and the 10-year survival rate with tumor -related death in Kaplan-Meier method was 76.9% by intra-arterial infusion therapy with multiple agents. That of radiotherapy group was 51%. We conclude that intra-arterial infusion therapy with multiple agents is an excellent therapeutic method for head and neck cancers. Survival rate in 7 fresh cases of advanced tongue or oral floor cancer treated with booster chemotherapy (CDDP±5FU) and 15 treated without booster chemotherapy were compared. The 10-year survival rate of the booster chemotherapy cohort was 85.7%, while that of without booster chemotherapy cohort was 35%. The usefulness of booster chemotherapy was indicated in this study. We conclude that neo-adjuvant intra -arterial infusion with multiple anti-cancer agents and booster chemotherapy is an excellent combination of therapeutic method for head and neck cancers.
