Abstract
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Objectives In our recent study, we developed a new radiopharmaceutical (Re-188 MN-16ET lipiodol) with encouraging results for the treatment of liver malignancy. In this study, we further evaluated the therapeutic efficacy of this radiopharmaceutical by measuring tumor response and survival times in rats with liver tumors after intra-hepatic arterial injection of Re-188 MN-16ET lipiodol.
Methods Twelve male rats bearing hepatic tumors were divided into three groups (4 rats in each group). Group 1 received an intra-hepatic arterial injection of 18.5 MBq Re-188 MN-16ET lipiodol; Group 2 received lipiodol and Group 3 received normal saline. Tumor size was measured by liver sonography before injection, at two weeks, four weeks and eight weeks after injection. Survival time and response rate were calculated.
Results Of the rats in Group 1, 100% showed good response. In contrast, all rats (100%) in Group 2 and Group 3 showed poor response. The difference was significant with a p value of 0.0142. All rats (100%) survived over 60 days in Group 1, while only 25% of rats in Group 2 and no rats (0%) in Group 3 survived over 60 days. The difference was significant with a p value of 0.0067 between Group 1 and Group 3. The p value was 0.04 between Group 1 and Group 2. The rats in Group 2 also had better survival than the rats in Group 3 with a p value of 0.034.
Conclusions Re-188 MN-16ET lipiodol has good potential for the treatment of hepatoma.