Endovascular treatment for locally advanced head and neck tumors.

e17554Background: Treatment of locally advanced head and neck tumors is an extremely difficult task. Preoperative polychemotherapy allows improving the efficiency of combined treatment in most cases. We performed 6 chemoembolization procedures for locally advanced head and neck cancer in order to increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy with minimal systemic side effects and to reach cytostatic concentrations in tumors higher than at their intravenous administration. Methods: We performed the standard puncture femoral approach and selective catheterization of the external carotid artery followed by angiography. Superselective catheterization of targeted vessels using 2.6 F microcatheter was performed after evaluation of blood supply to the affected area. Chemoembolization was performed with platinum drugs (cisplatin at a mean dose of 50 mg/m2) in an oil emulsion with Lipiodol (4 patients) and saturable microspheres (2 patients). Results: All patients showed a severe pain syndrome during embolization wit...