[Fluorinated pyrimidines administered by percutaneous arterial perfusion in primary or secondary cancers of the...

The results of a study based on intraaterial therapy applied to 65 cases of hepatic cancers (among which 42 cases of metastases of recto-colitic origin and 8 cases of primitive hepatomas) are reported. The catheters are insected percutaneously through the left brachial artery. After achort term treatment with Fluoro-Uracil FUDR is given continuously for over 20 weeks on the average, in ambulatory practice, using a Watkins chronofusor. A subjective response is reported in 88 p. 100 of the cases, an objective one in 74 p. 100. The mean survival time reckoning from the date of diagnosis is 16.6 months (it is somewhat longer in the cases of primitive hepatoma). The signs of systemic toxicity are frequent but mild; they seldom compel to discontinue the treatment. No death due to therapy has been register-d. The results are at least as good and even better with transcutaneous catheters than with catheters surgically inserted in the abdomen. They should encourage a wide spread of the method.