Clinical efficacy of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) topical cream for treatment of cholesteatoma.

Objective: In order to clarify clinical efficacy of commercially available 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) topical cream, a clinical study was conducted.

Methods: Two to three cubic millimetres of 5-FU topical cream (Kyowa, Roche) was applied on 50 cases of various types of cholesteatoma (50 patients) two to five times with the interval of 2 weeks, and its clinical efficacy was evaluated by the criteria we developed.

Results: In total, 59% of the cholesteatomas showed good effect, 29% of them showed fair effect, and the effect was poor in the remaining 12%.