A study of survival in patients with stomach cancer treated by a combination of preoperative intra-arterial infusion therapy and surgery.

Since 1968, there have been 62 patients with stomach cancer seen in the First Department of Surgery of Chiba University. Treatment consisted of preoperative intra-arterial chemotherapy and surgery. The chemotherapy entailed continuous infusion for 15 to 20 hours. The survival rates were analyzed with particular emphasis on the degree of serosal invasion of the stomach. The overall survivals at the end of 3 years were 54.2% for the treated patients, and 37.1% for the controls: and at the end of 5 years, 33.3% of the treated patients were living as compared to 29.7% of the control patients. In patients without serosal invasion, the survival rates were higher for those treated than for the controls for the first 2 years. At the end of 3 years, the 39 patients treated for serosal invasion had a survival rate of 46.8% vs. 29% in the controls: and at 5 years, 32.2% of the treated patients vs. 23.7% in the controls. The survival rates for the treated patients with cancerous infiltration of other organs were about the same as those for the corresponding control patients.