Short-term intra-arterial infusion chemotherapy for head and neck cancer patients maintaining quality of life

PURPOSE: Head and neck cancer treatment achieves good locoregional tumor control rates while causing severe side effects. Therapy with chemotherapeutic drugs administered intravenously is limited because either the concentrations at the tumor site are too low or the total dosages are too high. The evaluation of a technique for short-term intra-arterial infusion chemotherapy is described herein. METHODS: In a retrospective study, we reviewed the medical records of 97 patients with head and neck cancers who received short-term intra-arterial infusion chemotherapy (62 patients previously untreated, 35 patients with prior radiotherapy). All patients refused further radiotherapy. Response rates, overall survival and adverse effects were the study endpoints. The blood supply of the tumors was controlled with indigocarmine blue infusion and staining of the tumor region. RESULTS: Complete or partial response was found in 67%, 52% and 63% of previously untreated patients and in 25%, 30% and 29%, respectively, of previously irradiated patients for staging groups I–III, IVA and IVB/C. Patients with T3/T4 tumors who were previously irradiated showed a median overall survival of 9 months, and those without pretreatment showed a median overall survival of 22.5 months. None of the patients required tube feeding. No new case of dysphagia, xerostomia, or functional speech and hearing loss was reported. Pain and clinical symptoms were reduced for all patient groups. Indigocarmine staining showed reduced tumor blood supply in previously irradiated regions but good blood supply in untreated regions. CONCLUSIONS: Short-term intra-arterial infusion chemotherapy achieves promising response rates and lacks severe adverse effects. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s00432-018-2784-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.