Balloon occluded arterial infusion (BOAI) treatment of patients with locally advanced cervical carcinoma.

Nineteen patients with locally advanced inoperable carcinoma of the uterine cervix (8 with stage IIb, 8 with stage IIIb and 3 with stage IV) were treated with a cisplatin (100 mg/m2), aclacinomycin (30 mg/m2) and bleomycin (20 mg/m2) combination using balloon occluded arterial infusion (BOAI), and 5 patients (2 stage IIb, 1 stage IIIa and 2 stage IIIb) received the same drugs intravenously (i.v.). Partial response was observed in 5 patients (26%) and minor response was observed in 11 patients (58%) after one course of BOAI treatment. The free-platinum concentration achieved by BOAI was significantly greater than that achieved by i.v. administration. The intratumoral concentration of total-platinum was significantly higher in the BOAI-treated group than in the i.v. infusion group. Higher concentrations of total-platinum were found in the uterine corpus and cervical tumor as compared with those in the ovaries or lymph nodes. The antitumor effect of BOAI was confirmed by histological examination of tumor tissues. These results demonstrated that BOAI, which delivers the drug locally in a high concentration, provides an effective means for the treatment of locally advanced cervical cancer.