Linomide improves the effect of interstitial laser thermotherapy in a rat liver tumour model

The aim of this study was to investigate if Linomide affects growth and spread of a rat liver tumour when given alone and in combination with interstitial laser thermotherapy (ILT).

Experiments were performed in Wistar rats using a dimethyl-hydrazine-induced adenocarcinoma implanted into the left lateral lobe of the liver. The rats were randomised to one of the following groups: a) ILT and Linomide, b) ILT only, c) sham ILT, d) Linomide only, or e) control. ILT was intentionally suboptimal. Linomide (100 mg/kg/day) was given in the drinking water from the start of treatment for five days. ED1, ED2 macrophages and v Willebrand (factor VIII) were determined by an immunohistochemical technique.

Linomide reduced viable liver tumour volume both when it was given alone (p < 0.01) and when combined with ILT (p < 0.05), whereas it lowered intraperitoneal spread in ILT-treated rats alone. Six days after ILT, there was a reduction in the number of newly-recruited macrophages and blood vessels in the viable tumour tissue in rats receiving Linomide.

Linomide reduced the growth of an adenocarcinoma transplanted into rat liver, when given alone or combined with laser thermotherapy and reduced the spread of tumour in laser-treated rats. The effects of Linomide in laser-treated rats appeared, at least in part, to be due to a reduction in newly-formed vessels, which might have been secondary to a reduced number of tumour-associated macrophages.