Endobronchial Chemotherapy in Malignant Airway Lesions of the Lung: Report of 3 Years Experience

Abstract

Bronchoscopic palliative treatment is a modality that could reduce the symptoms in patients with inoperable lung cancer. Our interest is to study the palliative effect of intrabronchial chemotherapy using cisplatin, in patients with inoperable lung cancers.

Between the years of 2003 and 2006, patients with unresectable lung cancer and endobronchial lesion were selected for tumor debulking via intrabronchial injection of cisplatin. After flexible bronchoscopy, maximum 20 mL cisplatin with the concentration of 50 mg/100 mL was injected into the bulk of the tumor through the special needle. The procedure was performed weekly for 4 sessions. After the end of fourth session, this procedure was done monthly. Patients were followed according to the symptoms, size of the involved lumen, and changes in the shape and size of intrabronchial lesion after local chemotherapy.

A hundred patients were studied (72 men, 28 women). All of them diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. According to the histology, they were categorized as adenocarcinoma (n=48), squamous cell carcinoma (n=32), and nonsmall cell lung cancer, unspecified (n=20). At the end of the forth session of local chemotherapy, the involved lumen was considerably opened (more than 25%) in 80 patients.

We suggest that endobronchial chemotherapy with cisplatin could be used for debulking of the tumor in the cases with inoperable lung cancer.