Effectiveness of intra-arterial infusion chemotherapy for solitary bone metastasis from lung cancer with radiotherapy--a case report

There have been few reports on intra-arterial infusion chemotherapy for metastatic bone cancer because the bone metastasis is multiple in almost all cases. However, selective intra-arterial infusion chemotherapy is thought to be more effective than systemic chemotherapy for solitary bone metastasis. The patient was a 47-year-old man who had been diagnosed with solitary metastasis of the right knee joint from lung cancer on the basis of various imaging studies and biopsy. The metastatic bone cancer showed rapid growth with systemic inflammatory response, and the patient's general condition became progressively worse. Therefore, radiotherapy alone consisting of 3 Gy of fraction x 5 fractions/week was initiated, but the metastatic lesion was a progressive disease (PD) at the middle point of radiotherapy (24 Gy), and we had no choice but to alter the therapy. Angiography showed dense tumor staining, so intra-arterial infusion chemotherapy was contemplated. Subsequently 15 mg/body of CDDP was administered persistently 5 days a week through a catheter placed in the right femoral artery that had been introduced via the left femoral artery. After 8 courses of this therapy (total dose 600 mg), the metastatic bone cancer was remarkably reduced in size and showed nearly a complete response (CR) on CT scan. This result suggests that intra-arterial infusion chemotherapy is very effective if there is only one bone metastasis lesion.