New oily agents for targeting chemoembolization for hepatocellular carcinoma

Purpose: The evaluation of new oily agents for targeting chemoembolization for hepatocellular carcinoma. Methods: Five types of oily preparation were injected into the hepatic arte ry of 54 rabbits inoculated with VX2 carcinoma cells in order to evaluate ( 1) the safety of these preparations, (2) their histologic distribution and the amount of agents remaining at tumor sites, and (3) computed tomographic (CT) images obtained. Of these preparations, three were made by mixing non -iodinated poppy seed oil and a thickener and then adjusted to have a visco sity lower than, equal to, or higher than that of lipiodol. A fourth prepar ation was a mixture of lipiodol and a thickener with a higher viscosity tha n Lipiodol alone, and the fifth preparation was lipiodol alone. Results: (1) No injury to the hepatic parenchyma was observed hematological ly or histologically. (2) With increase in the viscosity, a significantly l arger amount of agent remained at the tumor site. No agent was present at n ormal sites 14 days after intraarterial injection, regardless of which prep aration was given. (3) On CT scans following intraarterial. injection, tumo r cells were visibly deeply stained in the non-iodinated preparation groups , while the Lipiodol groups were not evaluable because of excessively high attenuation. Conclusion: The non-iodinated oily preparations and highly viscous oily pre parations developed in the present study were more useful than lipiodol for treatment of hepatic tumors.