[Intra-arterial chemoembolization with albumin microspheres including mitomycin C in inoperable hepatic cancer].

Intra-arterial chemoembolization using mitomycin C microsphere (MMC MS) was carried out both for VX-2 tumor-bearing rabbits and for 19 patients with inoperable hepatic cancer. MMC MSs contain 5% MMC in albumin as a biodegradable drug carrier and an average diameter is 45 +/- 8 microns. VX-2 tumor, implanted into the hind legs of the rabbits, was treated intraarterially when it grew up to 2 cm in diameter. Tumor growth was compared with the other treated groups such as control, conventional MMC or blank microsphere; and MMC concentrations in the peripheral blood, femoral vein blood and muscles of the hind legs were measured after treatment. Tumor growth in the MMC MS group was remarkably retarded, but the other groups had no retardation. MMC concentrations of blood and muscle dropped below the assay limitation within 2 hours after conventional MMC injection, but in the animals treated with MMC MS, those showed the sustained drug release over for 6 hours. Fifteen patients with unresectable hepatic malignancies received intra-arterial hepatic infusion using conventional MMC, while 19 patients were treated by MMC MS infusion. Tumor regression in the 19 patients with MMC MS was seen in 42% (8/19), while that in the 15 with conventional infusion in 33% (5/15). Serum CEA levels in 12 patients with metastatic cancer decline from 57.7 +/- 72.2 ng/ml to 16.5 +/- 21.6 ng/ml 2 weeks after MMC MS treatment. However, those in 10 patients given conventional infusion dropped from 24.0 +/- 18.1 ng/ml to 17.4 +/- 18.0 ng/ml. The survival duration for patients given conventional infusion was 6.7 +/- 2.8 months, but that with MMC MS prolonged to 14.1 +/- 8.9 months. The MMC MS treatment for metastatic hepatic cancer had superiority to the conventional infusion treatment at p = 0.0040 in survival rate.