Hepatic arterial infusion for liver metastases from colon cancer: comparison of mitomycin C(NSC-26980) and 5-fluorouracil (NSC-19893).

This study compares the effectiveness of hepatic arterial infusion of mitomycin C with that of 5-fluorouracil in the management of carcinoma of the colon metastatic to the liver. A higher tumor response rate was obtained with 5-FU (ten of 12 patients) than with mitomycin C (six of 13 patients). The patients treated with mitomycin C had a median survival time of 9.5 months compared to 12 months for those receiving 5-FU, but this survival is not much different from that of the untreated historical controls. Femoral artery thrombosis requiring surgical thrombectomy developed in five of the 30 catheterized patients.