Systemic chemotherapy is frequently unsatisfactory in the palliative treatment of patients with advanced intra-abdominal cancer. This has resulted in attempts to palliate intra-abdominal cancer by regional chemotherapy. This may be accomplished by perfusion or infusion techniques. Perfusion involves the introduction of drugs into the arterial blood supply of the tumor, but circulation to the area containing the tumor is isolated from the rest of the body by ligation of collaterals, tourniquets, balloon catheters, and vascular clamps. Infusion is the introduction (intermittent or continuous) of a chemotherapeutic agent into the arterial blood supply of a tumor without isolation of its circulation from other parts of the body. Systemic antagonists to the cancer agent may be used in conjunction with the infusion.
The drugs found to be most effective in chemotherapy of solid tumors of abdominal organs have been the antimetabolites (such as the fluorinated pyrimidines and methotrexate). These drugs, like all