Purpose: This article is a prospective trial of hyperfractional radiotherapy with bronchial arterial infusion of anticancer drugs to treat locally advanced bronchogenic cancer. The treatment results, the complications of bronchial arterial infusion, the failure patterns, the relationship of technical aspects of delivery of radiotherapy, and the protocol of anticancer drugs are presented.
Methods and materials: One hundred and twenty-six patients with locally advanced bronchogenic cancer, treated from January 1988 to January 1990, were divided randomly into four groups in our hospital. Group 1: combination of hyperfractional radiotherapy with bronchial arterial infusion of anticancer drugs (30 cases); Group 2: combination of conventional radiotherapy with bronchial arterial infusion of anticancer (33 cases); Group 3: combination of systemic chemotherapy and split-course radiotherapy (33 cases); Group 4: conventional radiotherapy only (30 cases).
Results: All the patients were followed for 3 years. The 1-year survival rates for Groups 1, 2, 3, and 4 are 80, 63.6, 48.5, and 30%, respectively. The 2-year survival rates for Groups 1, 2, 3, and 4 are 23.3, 15.15, 9.1, and 6.6%, respectively. The 3-year survival rates for Groups 1, 2, 3, and 4 are 10, 3.3, 0, and 0%, respectively.
Conclusion: This study demonstrated that the combination of hyperfractional radiotherapy with bronchial arterial infusion anticancer drugs can be performed safely and effectively for locally advanced bronchogenic carcinoma.