Intra-arterial chemotherapy for muscle-invasive urinary bladder cancer

A total of 9 patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer (T3 or T4N0M0) were treated with a modified intra-arterial M-VEC (IA-M-VEC) regimen beginning in October 1992 to evaluate its therapeutic efficacy, and in 3 evaluable patients who subsequently underwent radical cystectomy, the possibility of bladder preservation was assessed. The responses of the 8 evaluable patients were rated as complete response (CRs) in 3, partial response (PRs) in 3 and no change (NCs) in 2. The objective response rate (PR + CR) was 75%. An obvious down-staging (T3 --> pT1b) was confirmed in 2 of the 3 evaluable patients, suggesting the possibility of bladder preservation. Otherwise similar changes to hemorrhagic cystitis with minimal muscular fibrosis were conspicuous in the normal bladder wall. These pathological findings corresponded with those obtained by dynamic single photon emission computed tomography (D-SPECT) using 99mTC-macroaggregate albumin (99mTC-MAA). Besides a buttock-to-perianal erosion with neuralgia on the injection side, mild to moderate sensory disturbance of the sacral plexus was observed.