Successful Palliative Treatment of Gastric Cancer with Splenic Metastasis and Tumor Thrombosis of the Portal Vein by Endoscopic Injection of OK‐432 Directly into the Primary Tumor

Abstract

We describe a case with main portal vein tumor thrombosis and splenic metastases from a gastric cancer. This is the first clinical report of these two metastases occurring concomitantly. The patient had no liver metastasis prior to therapy. We judged the tumor in this case to be unresectable and injected OK‐432 directly into the primary gastric cancer. Injection of OK‐432 resulted in remarkable reductions, in the sizes of the metastatic lesions in the spleen and some reduction in the size of the primary tumor. Moreover, the patient survived for 1 year and 7 months, commuting 544 km monthly by train for 1 year and 4 months to undergo treatment. The course of this patient suggests that the main effect was local immune activation, rather than an increase in systemic nonspecific immune functions. In addition, this therapy was very useful for maintaining the quality of life of this patient.