Penile blood pressure studies and pudendal artery angiograms indicate that vascular disease may be a frequent cause of erectile failure in men. Attempts to correct this form of impotence with revascularization of the corpus cavernosum have been satisfactory in a minority of patients.

Forty patients with asymptomatic metastatic cancer to the liver discovered at the time of laparotomy were treated by combined intrahepatic arterial chemotherapy and internal irradiation in the form of 90Yttrium microspheres. One group of 25 patients were treated by a catheter inserted at the time of operation and received 100 mCi; of 90Yttrium microspheres and 5-fluorouracil on a continuing basis. They survived an average of 26 mo (varying from 9 to 60 mo). The second series of 15 patients referred after surgery were treated by the percutaneous insertion of the catheter into the hepatic artery and received a bolus of combined chemotherapy consisting of PlatinolTM, Methotrexate, and 5-fluorouracil. They survived an average of 31 mo, which varied from 12 to 60 mo. The dose of 100 mCi of 90Yttrium was well tolerated by the liver. Prospective studies are in progress, limiting the treatment to the internal irradiation to determine its precise role in the overall treatment of metastatic cancer to the liver.

Sixty-five patients were referred for treatment with symptoms resulting from metastatic cancer to the liver from the GI tract. Two groups of patients were analyzed. The first group of 40 patients were subjected to a laparotomy and insertion of a catheter into the hepatic artery and a second group had the catheter inserted percutaneously and a bolus of cancer chemotherapeutic agents injected into the catheter. In both groups, chemotherapy in the form of 5-fluorouracil was supplemented by internal irradiation delivered from the intraarterial administration of Yttrium 90 microspheres. Forty percent of the patients who had an indwelling catheter performed at celiotomy manifested an objective response and in 60% a significant subjective improvement occurred. In the 25 patients whose catheter was inserted percutaneously, the response rate was roughly similar, in that 35% demonstrated an objective response and 65% demonstrated a subjective response.