Effect of intra-hepatoarterial infusion of MMC and CDDP for gastric cancer patients with liver metastases.

The influence of operative treatment and chemotherapy on the prognosis in 93 gastric cancer patients with liver metastasis was studied. Chemotherapy included the systemic administration of mitomycin C (MMC) (39 patients), an intra-hepatoarterial infusion of MMC (MMC IAC group) (19 patients) and an intra-hepatoarterial infusion of MMC and cisplatin (CDDP) (MMC + CDDP IAC group) (24 patients). Either MMC or MMC and CDDP were given in 1-4 courses every 3-4 weeks from the first one to two post operative weeks. The response rate was 4 per cent (1/23), 29 per cent (5/17) and 73 per cent (17/23) for MMC systemic administration, MMC IAC and MMC + CDDP IAC, respectively, with a significantly high rate of effectiveness for the MMC + CDDP IAC. In addition, regarding the median survival period, the MMC + CDDP IAC group showed 11.8 months, as compared with 2.9 months for other chemotherapeutic treatments, indicating a good prognosis regardless of any possible resection of the primary lesion. A Cox proportional hazard model revealed the treatment by MMC + CDDP IAC alone to be a significant independent factor. These results indicated that MMC + CDDP intra-arterial chemotherapy is an effective approach to gastric cancer with liver metastasis.