ESTABLISHMENT OF AN EXPERIMENTAL-MODEL FOR CONTINUOUS INTRAPORTAL INFUSION OF CHEMO-IMMUNOTHERAPEUTIC AGENTS IN THE RAT

The results of adjuvant continuous intraportal chemotherapy in prevent ing hepatic metastasis, following curative colorectal surgery, are sti ll equivocal. To improve the efficacy of this treatment we tried to es tablish an experimental model for continuous intraportal infusion in W istar male rats. Using a drug infusion balloon catheter, which can be fixed on the back of the rat, the continuous intraportal administratio n of chemo/immunotherapeutic agents was carried out in 47 rats for 5 d ays. Of them, 23 received chemotherapeutic (Mitomycin C/5-fluorouracil ) and 24 received chemoimmunotherapeutic (Mitomycin C/5-fluorouracil/L entinan) agents. The overall success rate of complete 5-day infusion o f the agents was 70.2%. The concentration of 5-fluorouracil in the per ipheral blood ranged from 5ng/ml to 17ng/ml (mean 10.4ng/ml) and in th e portal blood form 192ng/ml to 610ng/ml (mean 312.0ng/ml) following t he perfect continuous infusion of the agents. It can thus be suggested that our established experimental model can be used for the study of continuous intraportal infusion in unrestrained rats.