Intracarotid cisplatin chemotherapy for recurrent gliomas

Forty patients with recurrent gliomas were treated with monthly intra-arterial infusions of cisplatin. Of the 35 evaluable patients, 12 (34%) responded with computerized tomography (CT) evidence of a decrease in tumor size; in 14 (40%) the tumor stabilized on CT scans, and in nine (26%) the disease progressed. The median survival period was 35.0 weeks for the responders and 27.5 weeks for all 35 patients. The primary toxicities were renal (reversible alterations in creatinine clearance), otological (severe hearing loss in one patient), and likely neurotoxicity in one patient who had received bilateral infusions following contralateral tumor progression. The authors are now using this form of regional chemotherapy sequentially before and following radiotherapy in newly diagnosed cases.