We treated 13 head and neck tumor patients by selective and superselective intraarterial infusion chemotherapy combined with radiotherapy since 1990.
Under fluoroscopic guidance, an angiographic catheter was i nserted into the main feeding artery of the tumor via the femoral artery. Since a 5-6 Fr. catheter was used for selective angiography and infusion chemotherapy, a 3 Fr. catheter was employed for superselective angiography and infusion chemotherapy. For chemotherapy,60 mg/m2 of CDDP and 350 mg/m² of CBDCA were used.
All of the patients had squamous cell carcinoma. The lingual artery was used for the treatment of tongue tumors, the lingual and facial arteries for oral tumors, the suprathyroidal artery for hypopharyngeal and laryngeal tumors, and the external carotid artery for oropharyngeal tumors. The thyrocervical trunk was used for neck lymph node metastasis treatment.
A comp l e te response rate of 85% was achieved for primary tumor treatment. All 9 patients with neck-lymph node metastasis showed a partial response. The total response rate was calculated as 92%.