Thermochemotherapy for melanoma metastases in liver

Metastatic melanoma in the liver has carried an extremely poor prognosis regardless of therapy. Because transient responses (1/6 disease regressions and 2/6 disease stabilizations for four months) in selected patients treated with intraarterial (IA) DTIC infusion were encouraging and because localized hyperthermia may be both tumoricidal and synergistic with chemotherapy, these modalities were combined for treatment of patients with advanced liver metastases. Of 10 patients treated with IA-DTIC plus heat, three (30%) had disease-regression and five (50%) had disease stabilization for 3-14 months (median 6.5 months) and survived 3.5-18 months (median 8.5 months). During treatment, 4/5 patients had pain relief and 7/10 retained or acquired normal activities. Myelosuppression was minimal and no hyperthermia toxicity occurred. A retrospective review of 10 patients with similar disease levels who were treated with conventional intravenous (IV)-DTIC indicated no responses, and no responses were seen in five patients treated with IV-DTIC plus heat. However, this latter group may have been selected patients due to the inability to place a percutaneous hepatic artery infusion catheter. This pilot study suggests that combination IA-DTIC and hyperthermia has a high response rate, is safe, and can provide quality survival for many patients.