ABSTRACT
The intra-tumor MTX concentration was measured in 12 patients with cerebral gliomas and 31 patients of malignant gliomas were treated with intracarotid infusion of papaverine and bis-chloroaitrosourea (BCNU). After intracarotid infusion of papaverine to open up the blood-brain-barrier (BBB), the MTX concentration within tumor tissues was 1854? 512ng/gram, which higher than that without papaverine infusion, which was 1020? 512ng/gram. The diagnosis was glioblastoma in 21 patients and anaplastic astrocytoma in 10. They received the infusion for a mean of 2.1 times with 250mg BCNU each. The mean survival time was 101.6? 32.7 weeks, with 104 weeks of median survival time. Fourteen were still living, including 11 glioblastoma and 3 anaplastic astrocytoma. Of those, four have lived over three years. We considered combination of papaverine and BCNU infusion for chemotherapy of malignant cerebral glioma is simple, safe and effective, so long as tumors were susceptible to the chemotherapeutic drugs.