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Abstract

Background/Objectives:

Intratumoral injection of a radiopharmaceutical is a potential modality to treat liver tumors. Rhenium-188 (¹⁸⁸Re) was used to chelate with ethyl cysteinate dimer (ECD) in lipiodol solution to form ¹⁸⁸Re-ECD/lipiodol, which was then evaluated for its therapeutic potential in a rodent hepatoma model.

Materials and Methods:

Male Sprague-Dawley rats were implanted with N1-S1 hepatoma cells orthotopically and randomly divided into two groups. Group 1 (n = 29) and group 2 (n = 10) received ¹⁸⁸Re-ECD/lipiodol (30.4 ± 21.8 MBq/0.1 mL) and 0.1 mL of normal saline by intratumoral injection, respectively. Three rats in group 1 were imaged by micro–single-photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography scan to evaluate the biodistribution pattern. All rats were monitored for change of tumor size and survival rate after 2 months.

Results:

The in vitro stability test showed that ¹⁸⁸Re-ECD was well-retained in the lipiodol phase for 48 hours. The biodistribution image revealed that radioactivity was retained well in hepatomas 24 hours postinjection. Long-term studies demonstrated that rats treated with ¹⁸⁸Re-ECD/Lipiodol had smaller tumor volumes and a better survival rate, compared to the control group. At the end of observation, the survival rates in groups 1 and 2 were 62% and 20%, respectively (p < 0.05).

Conclusions:

¹⁸⁸Re-ECD/lipiodol via direct intratumoral injection shows potential for treating hepatoma and warrants further clinical trials.

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