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Updated: Jun 21, 2026
Pre-Conditioning the Airways of Mice with Bleomycin Increases the Efficiency of Orthotopic Lung Cancer Cell Engraftment
Published on: June 28, 2018
Photochemical internalization of bleomycin before external-beam radiotherapy improves locoregional control in a human
Ole-Jacob Norum1, Øyvind Sverre Bruland, Ludmila Gorunova
1Department of Radiation Biology, Institute for Cancer Research, The Norwegian Radium Hospital, Montebello, Oslo, Norway. oleno@radiumhospitalet.no
Purpose:
The aim of this study was to explore the tumor growth response of the combination photochemical internalization and external-beam radiotherapy. Photochemical internalization is a technology to improve the utilization of therapeutic macromolecules in cancer therapy by photochemical release of endocytosed macromolecules into the cytosol.
Methods And Materials:
A human sarcoma xenograft TAX-1 was inoculated subcutaneously into nude mice. The photosensitizer AlPcS(2a) and bleomycin were intraperitoneally administrated 48 h and 30 min, respectively, before diode laser light exposure at 670 nm (20 J/cm(2)). Thirty minutes or 7 days after photochemical treatment, the animals were subjected to 4 Gy of ionizing radiation.
Results:
Using photochemical internalization of bleomycin as an adjunct to ionizing radiation increased the time to progression for the tumors from 17 to 33 days as compared with that observed with photodynamic therapy combined with ionizing radiation as well as for radiochemotherapy with bleomycin. The side effects observed when photochemical internalization of bleomycin was given shortly before ionizing radiation were eliminated by separating the treatment modalities in time.
Conclusion:
Photochemical internalization of bleomycin combined with ionizing radiation increased the time to progression and showed minimal toxicity and may therefore reduce the total radiation dose necessary to obtain local tumor control while avoiding long-term sequelae from radiotherapy.
