[Interventional radiology in chemotherapy. Percutaneous arterial route and and embolization with microspheres]

The authors present their experience with interventional radiological techniques employed for chemotherapy: 205 intra-arterial chemotherapy (IAC) cycles were administered to 67 patients (lesion sites were: liver 20, pelvis 35, unknown 12). Catheters were left in place for 5 days in 89% of cases. The positions of the end of the catheter was checked by CT scan, with concomitant arterial opacification in the case of pelvic pathologies; this allowed evaluation of the tumor volume treated. Serious radiological complications of IAC included: 2 surgical thrombectomies and 2 surgical removals of broken catheters (2% complication rate for IAC). 15 embolizations with microcapsules of mitomycin were performed for 11 patients, using the technique of Kato. Venous blood samples revealed the persistence of mitomycinemia for up to four hours. three instances of pain were noted in the 24 hours following embolization. These two techniques have a low rate of serious complications; the therapeutic efficacy observed in certain cases warrants the use of these methods for cancers impossible to treat by radical procedures.