Results of hypotonic cisplatin treatment on seven patients with carcinomatous pleuritis

Carcinomatous pleuritis frequently undermines the quality of life in advanced malignant disease patients. The traditional treatment for pleural effusion is intrapleural administration of a chemical agent, but its efficacy was not at all satisfactory. Ichinose et al.developed hypotonic cisplatin treatment for patients with carcinomatous pleuritis in 1993, and its therapeutic efficacy was assessed by the Japan Clinical Oncology Group. This treatment was performed on seven patients in our hospital since 2002: five patients with non-small-cell lung cancer, one with transverse colon cancer who had myocardial infarction (grade 4) after treatment, and another with gastric cancer who had grade 4 hemosputa. These patients, aged 52 to 88, complained of dyspnea before treatment, but all of them were able to be discharged with control of pleural effusion including the above-mentioned two patients. Although six patients had already died of disease, survival time after treatment of all patients ranged from 96 to 610 days, with an average of 346.7+/-228.2 days. The average time in five patients with non-small-cell lung cancer was longer than that in two with gastrointestinal malignant disease (not significant statistically). Hypotonic cisplatin treatment seemed to enhance the quality of life in lung cancer patients with carcinomatous pleuritis.