In our department, curative operations were performed for 49 patients with resectable advanced
gastric cancer from Jan. 1988 to Feb. 1990. Among these patients, preoperative intra-arterial
therapy using
cisplatin (40 or 60 mg) was done for 17 patients. In this report, recurrence and survival rate of these patients were investigated. Survival rate of patients with preoperative
intra-arterial injection therapy 42 months after operation was 56.15%, while that of patients without preoperative
intra-arterial injection therapy was 56.62%. There were no significant differences between these two groups. And two peritoneal disseminations and one brain
metastasis were seen in patients with preoperative
intra-arterial injection therapy (recurrence rate, 17.6%), but no liver
metastasis and local recurrence were noted. Seven recurrences were observed in patients without pre-operative intra-arterial CDDP injection
therapy (local 3, liver 3, peritoneal dissemination 1, recurrence rate, 21.2%). We have already reported that much
platinum accumulated in
gastric cancer tissue and regional lymph nodes. This high accumulation of
cisplatin can be the reason why no local recurrence was seen in patients with preoperative
intra-arterial injection therapy. In conclusion, preoperative
intra-arterial injection therapy using
cisplatin may be an effective method to prevent postoperative local recurrence of resectable advanced
gastric cancer.