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

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignancies in China. Direct intratumoral injection of nonremovable radioactive material has been widely studied because it could deliver high doses of radiation to target 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 [ 188Re]rhenium sulfide suspension or sodium [ 188Re]perrhenate solution. Another 30 tumor-bearing mice were divided into six groups, four groups of which were treated with a 0.1 ml [ 188Re]rhenium sulfide suspension at doses of 3.7, 7.4, 18.5, 29.6 MBq by a single intratumoral injection. For control studies, to study the tumor inhibiting ratio, the remaining two groups were injected with nonradioactive rhenium sulfide suspension and Hanks’ balanced salt solution, respectively. The injections were repeated 6 days later. The retention percentages of radioactivity (%ID) in tumors injected with [ 188Re]rhenium sulfide 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% when the outer space of tumor (0.5–0.6 cm from center) received about 507.6 Gy doses. Intratumoral injection of [ 188Re]rhenium sulfide suspension results in high tumor retention indicating this approach has strong potential for the treatment of hepatic carcinoma.