Daily concurrent preoperative chemo-radiotherapy using superselective intra-arterial infusion via superficial temporal artery for advanced oral cancers – histological evaluation of metastatic cervical lymph nodes K. Mitsudo, N. Yamamoto, T. Shigetomi, H. Nishiguchi, H. Furue, T. Iwai, M. Hirata, Y. Matsui, M. Ueda, I. Tohnai

J Jpn Stomatol Soc 2010: 59: 1–8 Superselective intra-arterial chemotherapy via a superficial temporal artery has become feasible for daily concurrent radiotherapy and chemotherapy in patients with oral cancers. In this study, histopathological effects on metastatic cervical lymph nodes in cases of advanced oral cancers using superselective intra-arterial chemoradiotherapy were evaluated. Thirty-seven oral cancer patients with cervical lymph node metastasis were treated with preoperative chemoradiotherapy using superselective intra-arterial infusion via a superficial temporal artery. The treatment consisted of superselective intra-arterial infusions (docetaxel, total 60 mg/m ² ; cisplatin, total 100–150 mg/m ² ) and concurrent radiotherapy (total 40–60 Gy) for 4–6 weeks, followed by surgery. In cases that a catheter was inserted into the facial artery, 83% (20 out of 24 patients) of patients achieved histopathological effects of grade III or IV (Oboshi-Shimosato’ s classification, grade III: no viable tumor cells, grade IV: no tumor cells) in their cervical lymph node metastasis. Amongst these, 46 (88.5%) of 52 metastatic lymph nodes showed grade III or IV histopathological results. The authors concluded this method was an effective regimen for oral cancers with cervical lymph node metastasis.

KEN OMURA