[Retrospective survey of pharmacologic tolerance in the prevention of neoplastic recurrence of superficial urothelioma].

Abstract

As from June 1989 all superficial bladder tumours (regardless whether treated by surgery or endoscopy) have been included in 5 different chemo, immuno or chemoimmunoprophylactic protocols of therapy against neoplastic recurrence. The protocols considered: mitomycin alone and in association with alpha 2a IFN; epirubicin alone and in association with alpha 2b IFN; immunomodulating alpha 2a IFN. The administration procedures adhered to those set down in the literature and late treatment modalities were used for the associations. The aim of the study was to perform a retrospective evaluation of the intravesical therapies regarding local and systemic tolerability to various drugs and disregarding any evaluation of drug efficacy, i.e. the percentage of patients free from recurrence. We evaluated 92 patients and a total of 1028 instillations carried out prior to June 1991. The number of patients in each protocol was: 31 on IFN; 13 on mitomycin; 24 on epirubicin; 14 on the immunomodulator plus with mitomycin; 10 on the immunomodulator associated with epirubicin. Treatment was suspended in 11/92 patients (11.9%). The highest percentage of interruptions (21.4%) was observed in the mitomycin plus IFN protocol, while the lowest (6.4%) was seen in the IFN monoprotocol. The percentage of patients who presented no side effects during prophylaxis was similar in all protocols studied (50% of patients on the two associations and 54.8% on IFN alone) with the exception of the epirubicin protocol patients who showed lower tolerance (41.6%). The number of "irritable" instillations in each protocol group was analyzed. The lowest number (9/162 = 5.5%) was conserved in the epirubicin plus IFN protocol, while the highest (19/108 17.5%) was seen in the mitomycin group.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)