Triple drug intra-arterial infusion combined with x-ray therapy and surgery for head and neck cancer

Forty-four patients with advanced carcinoma of the head and neck in anatomic areas supplied by the external carotid artery have been treated by intra-arterial infusion of 5-fluorouracil (sodium), 4-amino-N¹⁰-methylpteroylglutamic acid (methotrexate), and vinblastine (Velban). This was followed by radiation therapy and surgery when applicable. The patients in this excision are the potential cures. The patients who had response to therapy with 100 per cent regression of the tumor but did not undergo standard surgical extirpation because of inaccessibility of the lesion died of recurrent disease at the primary site within two years.