Pharmacokinetics of mitomycin C in pelvic stopflow infusion and hypoxic pelvic perfusion with and without hemofiltration: a pilot study of patients with recurrent unresectable rectal cancer.

This pilot study was conducted to evaluate the advantage in drug delivery for regional chemotherapy in patients with unresectable recurrent rectal carcinoma by different methods. For this research, the pharmacokinetic advantages of mitomycin C delivery by four different methods were compared: intraaortic infusion with aortic stopflow; intraaortic infusion with inferior vena cava stopflow; intraaortic infusion with aortic and inferior caval vein stopflow (hypoxic pelvic perfusion); and hypoxic pelvic perfusion with hemofiltration. The results of this study indicate that pelvic stopflow infusion followed by hypoxic pelvic perfusion significantly increases mitomycin C concentrations in the blood coming from the tumor site. Also, use of hemofiltration reduces mitomycin C levels in peripheral blood after high-dose regional chemotherapy. Further investigations involving more patients should be carried out in the future to validate these results.