Intra-arterial BCNU chemotherapy for the treatment of malignant gliomas of the central nervous system: a preliminary report.

We treated six patients with unilateral malignant astrocytomas with pulse doses of intra-arterial BCNU (200 mg/m2 initially, with escalating doses every 6-8 weeks) via transfemoral selective internal carotid catheterization. Four patients had had partial resections without prior radiation therapy and received no steroids. They had decreased tumor stain and surrounding edema after two to four cycles of chemotherapy. For one patient, results of the neurologic examination returned to normal, with total disappearance of her tumor as assessed by computerized tomographic scan. Objective tumor response continued for 7 months in three patients and for 3 months in one. In two of the four patients, chemotherapy was discontinued because of retinal toxicity and not because of treatment failure. Two patients had had partial resections and radiation therapy. One patient had stable disease for 4 months, and the second had progressive disease with gradual visual loss beginning in the infused eye 3 weeks after the second treatment. The catheterization procedure is safe; it was without immediate complication in 17 BCNU infusions. In summary, high-dose intra-arterial BCNU is well-tolerated and is an effective initial chemotherapeutic modality.