A scheduled protocol for the treatment of juvenile recurrent respiratory papillomatosis with intralesional cidofovir.

OBJECTIVE To assess the efficacy of treating juvenile recurrent respiratory papillomas with intralesional cidofovir using a scheduled treatment protocol. DESIGN Prospective case series. SETTING Tertiary care academic medical center. PATIENTS Of 5 pediatric patients with recurrent respiratory papillomas, 2 had severe recurrent papillomatosis requiring long-term therapy of laser ablations every 2 weeks prior to cidofovir treatments. The 3 other patients were newly diagnosed or had milder disease. INTERVENTION Intralesional cidofovir (1 mg/kg) was administered during each scheduled visit. The first 4 treatments were at 2-week intervals (week 0, 2, 4, and 6). Subsequent treatment intervals were each increased by 1 week (treatments took place at week 9, 13, 18, 24, etc). Concomitant laser ablation was used only for bulky lesions. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Papilloma stage and need for laser ablation at each scheduled visit. RESULTS The mean follow-up time was 66 weeks. The mean (SD) papilloma stage decreased from 9.2 (5.5) at initial presentation to 3.4 (2.6) within 2 weeks of the first injection (P<.05), and continued to decrease for the remaining of the follow-up period. Papilloma stage 0 was achieved in 4 of the 5 patients. The need for laser ablation of papillomas also decreased within 4 weeks of treatment initiation (P<.05). At 9 weeks, no patient required laser therapy. One patient was removed from the protocol after 58 weeks. CONCLUSION An intralesional treatment protocol with cidofovir and increasing intervals between scheduled treatment was successful the long-term management of juvenile respiratory papillomatosis.