Chronic intratumoral chemotherapy of a rat tumor with cisplatin and fluorouracil.

In order to demonstrate the feasibility and efficacy of intratumoral chemotherapy, brain tumors in rats were treated by direct infusion of cisplatin or fluorouracil. Each animal was initially implanted in the midline cerebellum with a chronic stainless-steel cannula, and 2 weeks later 1 X 10(5) 9L cells were injected through the cannula. 8 days after tumor cell transplantation, a small implantable pump containing drug, or saline as a control, was connected up to the same cannula, and the solution was pumped into the tumor region for 7 days. The results showed that both drugs produced statistically significant increases in survival as compared to the controls.