Therapeutic efficacy of 5-fluorouracil-loaded microspheres on rat glioma: a magnetic resonance imaging study

The aim of this work was to assess the therapeutic efficacy of an intratumo ral bolus injection of 5-fluorouracil (FU) compared to that of drug loaded in biodegradable microspheres, for the treatment of brain tumour. Experimen ts were carried out using a fast-growing C6-glioma rat model. The therapeut ic protocols were performed 12 days after the injection of glioma cells. At this stage, the tumours, were installed and the mean volume was 13 +/- 2 m ul as measured by proton magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. This technique wa s used for the follow-up of the tumour volume with respect to time and ther apy. In terms of rat survival, both therapies induced a significant 50% inc rease in animal life span (p < 0.05) compared to animals receiving no drug or unloaded microspheres. Whilst no cure was observed, analysis of the MR i mages showed that the local and sustained delivery of FU slowed the tumour development in the vicinity of the microspheres by a factor of 3, compared with the bolus intratumoral injection. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons , Ltd.