[Experimental study on intraperitoneal administration of 5-fluorouracil for liver metastasis in comparison with...

We studied the effects of 5-fluorouracil intraperitoneal administration using mouse liver metastasis model. We inoculated 50 microliters Colon26 cell suspension into the spleen and resected it 15 min after cell inoculation under general anesthesia with Ketamine. Control group (n = 7) had no treatment. The intraperitoneal (i.p.) group (n = 8) and intravenous (i.v.) group (n = 7) underwent the treatment on the 2nd and 4th day after the operation. Experimental chemotherapies consisted of 1.5 ml 5-fluorouracil solution (50 mg/kg) for i.p. group and 0.2 ml 5-fluorouracil solution (50 mg/kg) for i.v. group. On the 14th day after the cell implantation, necropsies were performed. Deposits on mouse livers were counted and the mouse livers weighted. Counting of metastatic liver deposits revealed the number of deposits in the control group was 25.6 +/- 12.9, against 2.9 +/- 1.9 and 16.0 +/- 15.6, in the i.p. and i.v. group, respectively. Significant differences in the number of liver deposits were obtained between the control group and i.p. group, and between i.p. group and i.v. group (p < 0.05). The mean liver weight (mg)/mouse body weight (g) were 76.3 +/- 24.7 in the control group, 54.3 +/- 4.7 in the i.p. group and 60.0 +/- 12.7 in the i.v. group. A significant difference was observed only between the control group and the i.p. group (p < 0.05). I.p. administration of 5-fluorouracil was superior to i.v. administration for control of the liver metastasis. Moreover, the side effect by 5-fluorouracil i.p. treatment was milder than by i.v. therapy. We confirmed the effectiveness of 5-fluorouracil intraperitoneal chemotherapy for the potential liver metastasis and liver micrometastasis. Intraperitoneal chemotherapy is also useful for peritoneal seeding. We think intraperitoneal chemotherapy is a recommendable administration route for gastrointestinal malignancies.