Arterial infusion chemotherapy using cisplatin, 5-fluorouracil, and isovorin for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, pilot study: Is a high dose of the biochemical modulator effective?

The authors report the efficacy of arterial infusion chemotherapy using cisplatin (CDDP), 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), and leucovorin (LV) for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of our regimen with high-dose LV, using isovorin (IV) (high dose group), comparing the previous regimen (low-dose LV; low dose group). This is a retrospective, historical, and non-controlled trial. In the high dose group (n=15), one course of chemotherapy consisted of the daily administration of CDDP (10 mg/1 h, for 5 days) and IV (12.5 mg/10 min, for 5 days) followed by 5-FU (250 mg/5 h, for 5 days). In the low dose group (n=9), changing to the administration of LV (12 mg/day), the same regimen was employed. In principle, we did this 20 times. In the high dose group, complete response (CR) was found in two patients, and partial response (PR) in six patients. Thus, the response rate was 53%. In the low dose group, CR was found in two patients, and PR in three patients. Thus, the response rate was 56%. There were no significant differences in the response rate (P=0.71), the survival rate (P=0.29) and the toxicity between the two groups. We considered the recommended dose of LV to be 12 mg/day in our regimen, although this is a preliminary study.