[Delagil treatment of tumorous pleurisy]

A review of the literature is given on the efficacy of intrapleural use of different drugs (embichine, thiophosphamide, 5-fluorouracil, etc. and also acrichin (chinacrin) for malignant pleural involvement with the presence of exudate in the pleural cavity. Under study was the efficacy of intrapleural injection of delagil in 28 patients with pulmonary cancer, breast cancer and other malignant tumors with the presence of exudate in the pleural cavities. The effect, manifested in the cessation of the fluid accumulation, its encapsulation, was observed in 60 per cent of patients, an average duration of the remission being 8.3 months. In highly sensitive tumors (cancer of ovaries, breast cancer) the treatment should be initiated with intrapleural injection of thiophosphamide or embichine, and in case of failure delagil is to be employed intrapleurally. As a rule, side-effects, manifested in chest pains and temperature rise up to 38.5 degrees are of a short duration and require no special therapy.