[The long-term prognosis of intra-arterial chemotherapy in invasive bladder cancer].

During the period from August 1980 to April 1989, preoperative intra-arterial infusion chemotherapy was performed in 22 patients with resectable bladder cancer. An oblique incision approximately 12 cm long was made in the gluteal lesion to expose the inferior gluteal artery, into which a Teflon catheter was inserted and fixed. Via this catheter, a single dose of 10-20 mg CDDP and/or 10 mg ADM was injected 1-2/week. The majority of patients were treated with radiation and/or hyperthermia as a combined therapy. The 5-year survival rates (Kaplan-Meier method) were 81.6% in patients treated with intra-arterial infusion chemotherapy as an adjuvant to total cystectomy, compared with 37.5% in patients treated with total cystectomy only. There was a statistically significant difference between the two groups (p less than 0.01). Therefore, inferior-gluteal-artery infusion chemotherapy is effective as a preoperative adjuvant therapy with no serious side effects.