[Evaluation of multi-disciplinary treatment combined with intra-arterial chemotherapy for carcinoma of the meso-pharynx].

Forty-seven cases of carcinoma of the mesopharynx , treated from 1973 to 1981 at Gunma Cancer Center, were evaluated. The following results were obtained, According to histopathologic diagnosis, 37 were well-differentiated squamous cell carcinoma and other cases were poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma. Classification of the site of the disease showed the most frequent site was lateral wall type (31 cases, 65.9 per cent) followed by anterior wall (9 cases), superior wall (5 cases), and posterior wall types (2 cases). According to TN classification, there were 1 case in T1, 14 cases in T2, 24 cases in T3, and 7 cases in T4, N distribution revealed 27 cases N0, 20 cases N1, N2 and N3. The most common treatment was intraarterial chemotherapy using 5-FU combined with external irradiation (15 cases, 31.9 per cent), external irradiation alone (14 cases, 29.7 per cent), external irradiation with Radium (8 cases, 17.0 per cent), and combined with cryosurgery 5 cases, 10.6 per cent). The five-year cumulative survival rate was 35.3 per cent. The lesion of mesopharyngeal carcinoma takes various forms, so the treatment policy cannot be a standard one. Thus multi-disciplinary treatment should be applied for this disease.