Efficacy of multidrug superselective intra-arterial chemotherapy (docetaxel, cisplatin, and 5-fluorouracil) using the Seldinger technique for tongue cancer.

Conclusion: This therapy produced better results than intravenous multidrug chemotherapy (CF therapy, CPF therapy, etc.) or superselective intra-arterial chemotherapy (SIC) alone with cisplatin (CDDP) and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). Primary tumor may be controlled by SIC alone in cases of T2 and many cases of T3 tumors, and by the combination of SIC and concurrent radiotherapy in cases of T3 and many cases of T4a. Cervical lymph node metastasis was treated with neck dissection in some patients. The results indicate that this therapy is useful to control primary tumor without resection for organ preservation.

Objectives: This therapy was intended to control primary tumor without resection for better quality of life (QOL).

Methods: A total of 45 patients with primary squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue were included in the study. SIC with docetaxel, cisplatin, and 5-FU was administered.

Results: In terms of the primary response of primary tumor, 43 patients achieved a clinical complete response (CR). Moreover, in these patients no cancer cells were histopathologically found by biopsy, resulting in a response rate of 100% and a CR rate of 95.6%. During the median follow-up period of 1779 days (59 months) (range 110-3752 days), the 5-year survival rate and organ preservation rate were 89.8% and 80.7%, respectively.