COMBINATION RADIATION AND CHEMOTHERAPY FOR THE TREATMENT OF SQUAMOUS-CELL CARCINOMA OF THE MALE AND FEMALE URETHRA

We report on 2 men and 2 women with locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the urethra who were treated with combination chemotherapy and radiation. Treatment consisted of 1,000 mg./M.(2) 5-fluorouracil plus 15 mg./M.(2) mitomycin-C followed by 30 to 50 Gy, external beam radiation. The 2 women achieved durable complete responses, and are alive with no evidence of disease 94 and 43 months later, respectively. The men also had regional lymph node metastases, and 1 achieved complete response and has no evidence of disease 98 months posttreatment, while the other experienced partial response in the primary tumor and complete response in the involved inguinal nodes. The latter patient died of an unrelated cause with residual disease at 7 months. Only mild toxicity occurred in 3 patients. This regimen of chemotherapy and radiation is well tolerated and should be considered as primary therapy for invasive squamous cell carcinoma of the male and female urethra.