Combination of hepatic arterial infusion and systemic chemotherapy for gastric cancer with synchronous hepatic metastases.

Between 1964 and 1981, seventy-two Japanese patients with gastric cancer associated with hepatic metastases, in whom the primary tumor had been resected, were treated in a nonrandomized manner at the Second Department of Surgery, Kyushu University Hospital. Fourteen received hepatic arterial infusion (HAI) of 5-FU and Mitomycin C (MMC) combined with systemic chemotherapy, 26 combination systemic chemotherapy of MMC, Futraful and PSK, 18 single drug (MMC) therapy, and 14 no chemotherapy. The average survival was 264 days in HAI combined with systemic chemotherapy, 208 in the combination systemic chemotherapy, 156 in the single drug therapy and 135 in those given no chemotherapy. One year survival and nine month survival rates were 21.4 per cent and 42.9 per cent in HAI combined with systemic chemotherapy, 11.5 per cent and 19.2 per cent in the combination systemic chemotherapy, 5.6 per cent and 11.1 per cent in the single drug therapy and 7.1 per cent and 14.3 per cent in the no chemotherapy group, respectively (HAI vs single drug therapy and no chemotherapy, p less than 0.01). Five of 14 patients treated with HAI combined with systemic chemotherapy showed a partial response (greater than 50 per cent reduction in tumor size), and the average survival time was 335 days, while that of nonresponders was 224 days. Six of 14 patients treated with combination infusion therapy with MMC and 5-FU survived 314 days, as compared to 201 days for patients with infusion of 5-FU alone.