Regional chemotherapy--a comparison of pelvic perfusion and intra-arterial infusion in patients with advanced gynecologic cancer.

Forty-patients with advanced gynecologic cancer were treated with two different regional chemotherapeutic techniques. They were divided into two comparable groups. Twenty were treated by isolated regional perfusion and 20 were treated by intra-arterial infusion. The simple technique of intra-arterial infusion had a much lower mortality rate and gave equally satisfactory results when compared with the more complicated "closed" pelvic perfusion method. This comparative study suggests that the further use of isolated pelvic perfusion should await improvements in techniques and the development of more rapidly acting drugs. Further efforts in the area of infusion should be directed toward the development of more rapidly acting drugs, the development of better tumor-cytotoxic drug sensitivity tests, better use of the newer knowledge of cellular kinetics, and improved techniques for accuracy in the placement of arterial infusion catheters. While it is felt that regional chemotherapy has a place in management, it is not being proposed as a substitute for surgery or radiotherapy in the patient who will benefit from orthodox treatment.