The effect of intraarterial high-dose cisplatin on lymph nodes in oral and oropharyngeal cancer.

AIM OF STUDY To assess the effect of strictly local treatment [intraarterial chemotherapy (iaCHT) with high-dose cisplatin and parallel neutralization] in the primary oral and oropharyngeal cancer (OOSCC) on the dependent cervical lymph nodes. PATIENTS AND METHODS Seventeen consecutive patients with OOSCC and clinically positive necks underwent a prospective blinded comparison of two pre-surgical fluor18-deoxyglucose (FDG)-positron emission tomography (PET) examinations: baseline examination 1 week before and follow-up examination 3 weeks after iaCHT. Maximal standardized uptake (SUVmax) values of lymph nodes were measured and compared with each other and histopathology. RESULTS The SUVmax value of the primary and all neck lymph nodes with uptake decreased significantly. Twelve/17 patients having metastases revealed significant decrease (P = 0.03), and benign lymph nodes showed non-significant decrease of the SUVmax. All neck lymph nodes with uptake and nodal metastases showed a significant reduction (P = 0.004) of standard uptake values (SUV). CONCLUSION A regional effect of intraarterial cisplatin is proven. To date, it is not clear whether this is due to decreasing inflammatory reaction or a translymphatic anti-neoplastic effect.