Cardio-pulmonary elimination of 5-fluorouracil after bolus injection in the hepatic artery.

Theoretically, administration of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) into the hepatic artery should improve the clinical response rate by high tumor cell extraction of the drug. However, previous studies in animals and man have also found a major extrahepatic elimination route for 5-FU. In the present study of 7 patients with primary and secondary liver cancer, we have found indications that a considerable elimination of 5-FU takes place in the cardio-pulmonary circuit. Thus, the mean AUC in the hepatic vein was 7185 mumol X min X l-1 and 3792 in a peripheral vein.