The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of intraperitoneal
chemotherapy(repeated
injections of
cisplatin in small doses during a short time) on retroperitoneal
lymph node metastasis of
ovarian cancer. Thirty patients with
ovarian cancer were selected and divided into two groups. The patients in the first group received intraperitoneal
chemotherapy only once (48 hours before operation); the patients in the second group received intraperitoneal
chemotherapy twice (96 hours and 48 hours before operation). After the intraperitoneal
chemotherapy, according to the predicted time, the Pt concentrations of the tissues were measured by flameless atomic absorption spectrometry; the pathologic examinations of the lymph nodes were carried out. The results showed that the
drug concentrations of the aortic, obturator and iliac lymph nodes of the first group were not significantly different, neither were the
drug concentrations of the lymph nodes of the second group. The
drug concentrations of the lymph nodes of the first and the second groups were 2.06 and 1.91 times that of the surrounding tissues respectively. Also, the
drug concentrations of peritoneum of the first and the second groups were 4.14 and 2.50 times that of the lymph nodes. The
drug concentrations of the iliac, obturator and aortic lymph nodes of the second group were 2.27, 2.75 and 2.54 times that of the first group (P < 0.005). Under light microscope, the metastatic
cancer tissues in lymph nodes showed liquefaction
necrosis in the second group. The results indicate that small doses of
cisplatin given by repeated
injections during a short time can lead to
drug accumulation and consequently high efficacy with low toxicity, suggesting that this method may be used for the treatment of
lymphatic metastasis of
ovarian cancer.