Aim of the study : Currently, overall 5-year survival for pulmonary metastases is low while systemic chemotherapy provides little benefit. Isolated left lung perfusion (ILuP) with melphalan for pulmonary metastatic adenocarcinoma in the WAG rat was studied.
Material and methods : On day 0, 35 WAG rats (±250 grams) were injected with 2.0x10E6 CC531S cells intravenously (iv). On day 7, rats underwent sham thoracotomy; received 0.5 or 1 mg melphalan (MN) intravenously (iv); or left ILuP with buffered hespan (BH), MN 0.5 mg or 1.0mg. On day 14, the number of pulmonary metastases was assessed by the method of Wexler.
Tumor size was scored between 1+ (small) and 4+ (large). Statistical analysis was performed with ANOVA and Student’s T-test.
Results : All rats survived ILuP. The number of left lung lesions decreased significantly in the ILuP-treated animals with MN compared to controls (see table). MN iv in a dose of 1mg showed a bilateral decrease of pulmonary metastases whereas the group receiving 0.5mg demonstrated no effect.
Conclusions : ILuP with MN is well-tolerated at a dose up to 1mgh, and decreased the number of metastatic pulmonary nodules significantly for all doses. melphalan can be considered and effective agent for ILuP of metastatic carcinoma.