Intra-arterial infusion chemotherapy using implantable reservoir for liver metastasis of the lung cancer--an effective case

A 70-year-old man, who had undergone operation for primary lung adenocarcinoma one and a half year ago, was readmitted to our hospital for back pain. The CT scan revealed liver, vertebrae and lymph nodes metastases. Because of severe back pain, irradiation to the thoracic vertebrae was performed first. Next, a catheter was inserted into the hepatic artery and an implantable reservoir for intra-arterial chemotherapy was also left in the subcutaneous tissue to treat the liver metastasis. Mitomycin C was injected intermittently in the hepatic artery more than 10 times. The liver metastasis became necrotic and almost disappeared. The patient was free from the back pain and there was no evidence of regrowth of the liver metastasis at the time of this report, which was 14 months after the discovery of the liver metastasis.