Treatment of liver cancer by nanomedicine.

Abstract

e13091 Background: Oncological surgery as a therapy branch of general surgery is registering a rapid development in the form of neoadjuvant treatment. Therapies of liver tumors display diverse treatment alternatives. Methods: The administration of cytostatics coupled with and without iron oxides (Fe3O4) has been presented in an experimental series with 36 animals with prior implantation of an R1H rhabdomyosarcoma in the liver, since iron undergoes selective phagocytosis in the liver. In Group I, mitoxantrone is injected into the lateral tail vein of the animals (n = 12) in a dosage of 1 mg/kg of body weight. Group III (n = 12 animals) received mitoxantrone coupled with iron oxide (Fe3O4), and Group II (n = 12 animals) received NaCl, in the same dosage for all groups. In the sonography and in the measurement of the volume, a significantly smaller tumor growth is found in Group II compared with Group I and III. The volume was measured manually postmortally in mm3(length x breadth x height). Results: The tumor volume showed the lowest growth in Group II, which was treated with mitoxantrone-coupled iron oxides. 3 animals from Group II died. The autopsy revealed no indication of the cause of death. There were neither thromboses nor allergic reactions in any of the animals. It can be clearly seen that Group I has a smaller mean volume and less scatter than Group II. The mean of Group I is also below that of Group II. Conclusions: It has been possible to demonstrate in animal studies that mitoxantrone-coupled iron oxide (Fe3O4) reduces the tumor volume in the liver to a greater extent that administration solely of mitoxantrone. The studies should be verified in a clinical study on humans.