Study designs of evaluations included in the review
Retrospective case studies and prospective trials were included.
Specific interventions included in the review
Isolated limb perfusion with phenylalanine mustard alone or combined with other agents.
Participants included in the review
Patients reported as being treated with ILP for cutaneous melanoma of an extremity.(Patients treated by staged perfusions or fractional doses of chemotherapy in separate operative procedures were excluded). In total, data from 1,315 women and 667 men were included in the review. In 43% of these patients, ILP was performed for thick (>1.5mm) or high-risk primary (stage 1) melanoma. In 44% of patients, the treatment was for recurrent (stage 3) disease. The remaining 13% of patients had disease diagnosed as satellite lesions (stage 2) or diffuse local and systemic spread( stage 4) of cutaneous melanoma.(In all studies the disease stage was classified on the basis of the MD Anderson classification).
Outcomes assessed in the review
Mortality (defined as death within 30 days after surgery or any death related to ILP); major amputation (defined as loss of the extremity as a result of ILP; the amputation of a digit to treat subungual melanoma was not defined as major amputation); postoperative leukopenia (defined as a total white blood cell count <2,000 cells/mm cubed).
How were decisions on the relevance of primary studies made?
The authors do not state how the papers were selected for the review, or how many of the authors performed the selection.