Treatment of symptomatic metastatic cancer to the liver from primary colon and rectal cancer by the intraarterial administration of chemotherapy and radioactive isotopes.

Sixty-five patients were referred for treatment with symptoms resulting from metastatic cancer to the liver from the GI tract. Two groups of patients were analyzed. The first group of 40 patients were subjected to a laparotomy and insertion of a catheter into the hepatic artery and a second group had the catheter inserted percutaneously and a bolus of cancer chemotherapeutic agents injected into the catheter. In both groups, chemotherapy in the form of 5-fluorouracil was supplemented by internal irradiation delivered from the intraarterial administration of Yttrium 90 microspheres. Forty percent of the patients who had an indwelling catheter performed at celiotomy manifested an objective response and in 60% a significant subjective improvement occurred. In the 25 patients whose catheter was inserted percutaneously, the response rate was roughly similar, in that 35% demonstrated an objective response and 65% demonstrated a subjective response.