Prevention of disease progression in a patient with a gastric cancer-re-recurrence. Outcome after intravenous treatment with the novel antineoplastic agent taurolidine. Report of a case

BACKGROUND: Taurolidine (TRD) is a novel agent with multimodal antineoplastic effects. We present the case of a tumor remission after intravenous administration of taurolidine in a patient with gastric cancer re-recurrence. CASE PRESENTATION: A 58 years old male patient suffering from a gastric adenocarcinoma was submitted to partial gastrectomy and partial liver resection (pT2, pN1, pM1(L )(liver segment 2), N0, V0). 24 months later a local recurrence was diagnosed and the patient was reoperated. Postoperatively the patient underwent a palliative chemotherapy with eloxatin, FU, and leucovorin. A subsequent CT-revealed a liver metastasis and a recurrence adjacent to the hepatic artery. After successful radiofrequency ablation of the liver metastasis the patient was intravenously treated with 2% taurolidine. The patient endured the therapy well and no toxicity was observed. CT-scans revealed a stable disease without a tumor progression or metastatic spread. After 39 cycles the patient was submitted to left nephrectomy due to primary urothelial carcinoma and died 2 days later due to myocardial infarction. Postmortem histology of the esophageal-jejunal anastomosis and liver revealed complete remission of the known metastasized gastric adenocarcinoma. CONCLUSION: The intravenous treatment with 2% taurolidine led to a histological remission of the tumor growth without any toxicity for the patient.