[Clinical study of recurrent stomach cancer]

There are various patterns of recurrence of gastric cancer after radical resection, such as hepatic metastasis, carcinomatous peritonitis, residual stomach recurrence, local lymph node metastasis and establishment of distant metastasis. In cases of residual stomach recurrence, resection is sometimes feasible. Kruckenberg's tumor resulting from metastasis to the ovary can frequently be removed. With such resectable metastasis, surgical procedure is actively employed, with subsequent chemotherapy. Chemotherapy in such a case consists of combined chemotherapy by arterial infusion for induction of remission and administration of oral preparation and/or suppositories for maintenance. In the treatment of recurrent gastric cancer by arterial infusion, we made it a rule to administer drugs through a catheter inserted subselectively into the aorta. In the treatment by arterial infusion, the daily administration of 5-FU serves as the basic regimen. Dissolve 250 mg 5-FU in about 20 cc physiologic saline or 5% dextrose solution, and infuse the solution over 2 hrs with the use of a continuous arterial infusion pump. Administer of 5-FU daily, and fortify this treatment by one-shot injection of MMC 10mg/body each time, MMC is usually given 3-4 times, with intervals between its administrations adjusted according to WBC and platelet counts. ADM is given at dosage of 40 mg/body each time. We found it advisable to continue the administrations of 5-FU until its total dose reached about 20 g, while giving sufficient doses of ADM or MMC for induction of remission. The results obtained from 108 cases of the recurrent gastric cancer were shown as follows. The median survival period was 5 months. The twenty-one cases out of 108 cases in recurrent gastric cancer survived more than one year, because they received the intensive chemotherapy such as arterial infusion chemotherapy and oral or rectal administration of FT. The most patients with liver metastasis were treated with selective arterial infusion chemotherapy consisting of 5-FU plus MMC or ACNU. And the efficacy of arterial infusion chemotherapy was remarkable. Our efforts must be made to continue any treatment as long as possible and change drugs as necessary. Also we must keep general condition of the patients as good as possible using support therapy such as IVH, prevention of infection, immunotherapy, drainage so on.