Intraarterial bolus infusion followed by rapid removal of anticancer agents with hemocarboperfusion under local hyperthermia in advanced hepatic cancer

: Reported herein is a new multidisciplinary treatment modality for unresectable hepatic cancer in which local hyperthermia and intraarterial infusion of bolus anticancer agent are simultaneously undertaken while anticancer agent leaking from the hepatic bed into the general circulation is rapidly removed by charcoal hemoperfusion. Local hyperthermia induced by exposure to 13.56-MHz radiofrequency waves was conducted between one and one and a half hours once or twice a week. During the hyperthermia treatment, a bolus of either 1 mg/kg Mitomycin C or 2 mg/kg Adriamycin was injected into the hepatic artery via a Vascular Access Port, the catheter portion of which had been surgically inserted into the hepatic artery and the reservoir of which had been implanted subcutaneously. In general, a regular dose of 6 mg of Mitomycin C was injected into the Vascular Access Port during the following hyperthermia procedures. In seven of nine patients (78%) treated with this method, a marked reduction in tumor size of more than 50% was observed on computed tomograms. A light to moderate degree of side effects such as leukocytopenia, thrombocytopenia, liver dysfunction or hair loss were noticed after the bolus infusion, but were not so serious as to threaten the patients' lives.