Comparative study of intravenous and intraarterial cis-platinum on intratumoral platinum concentration in carcinoma of the cervix.

In order to define the influence of intraarterial administration of cis-platinum in tumors of the cervix, a preliminary crossover study was performed to measure and compare the intratumoral concentrations (ITC) of platinum obtained respectively after intravenous (iv) and intraarterial (ia) (both bilateral hypogastric arteries) injection. The results in nine patients demonstrate that higher (P = 0.05) intratumoral concentrations are obtained after intraarterial injection of cis-platinum: 10; 3.7-23.7 ng Pt/mg of dry tissue after ia (median; range) 6.9; 4.1-23.6 ng Pt/mg tissue after iv. This difference is probably too small to be of clinical significance and a comparative clinical trial does not seem to be warranted. The results also show a large intersubject variation in intratumoral platinum concentration which are reproducible in patients whatever route of administration is used. Thus the observed differences in ITC are more related to the variability of the tumor properties than to the route of administration.