Intratumoral injection with [Re-188]rhenium sulfide suspension for treatment of transplanted human liver carcinoma in nude mice

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignancies in Ch ina. Direct intratumoral injection of nonremovable radioactive material has been widely studied because it could deliver high doses of radiation to ta rget sites and minimize radiation leakage to non-target organs or tissues. Thirty nude mice bearing SMMC 7721 human liver carcinoma were used for the biodistribution study after intratumoral injection of [Re-188]rhenium sulfi de suspension or sodium [Re-188]perrhenate solution. Another 30 tumor-beari ng mice were divided into six groups, four groups of which were treated wit h a 0.1 ml [Re-188]rhenium sulfide suspension at doses of 3.7, 7.4, 18.5, 2 9.6 MBq by a single intratumoral injection. For control studies, to study t he tumor inhibiting ratio, the remaining two groups were injected with nonr adioactive rhenium sulfide suspension and Hanks' balanced salt solution, re spectively. The injections were repeated 6 days later, The retention percen tages of radioactivity (%ID) in tumors injected with [Re-188]rhenium sulfid e suspension were 90.96 + 6.63%, 86.09 +/- 22.58% and 87.62 +/- 13.97% at 1 , 24 and 48 h, respectively. Tumor inhibition ratios are as high as 89% whe n the outer space of tumor (0.5-0.6 cm from center) received about 507.6 Gy doses. Intratumoral injection of [Re-188]rhenium sulfide suspension result s in high tumor retention indicating this approach has strong potential for the treatment of hepatic carcinoma, NUCL MED BIOL 27;4:347-352, 2000. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.