Treatment of advanced cancer by isolation perfusion.

IN JUNE of 1957, Creech and co-workers introduced the technique of isolation and perfusion of confined neoplasms with the purpose of administering high concentrations of chemotherapeutic agents to tumor-bearing areas while protecting the body as a whole from toxicity. 1 The technique has been used rather widely in the past several years and varying tumor responses in humans have been reported. 2-5 The reports to date suggest that isolation perfusion techniques have afforded palliation in a significant number of patients treated. It is still too early to evaluate the curative effect of this procedure used prophylactically, particularly in the management of malignant melanoma. To the best of our knowledge, there are no reported long-term survivors in the group of patients treated and who had advanced malignancies. The purpose of this paper is to report our experiences with isolation perfusion and the problems which have been encountered. Case Selection The patients