[CT kinetics of intratumor liposome deposits]

CT follow-up studies of liposome-entrapped metrizamide after intraneoplastic injection into neurogenic s.c. rat tumors were performed. By closely resembling clinical examination conditions, the experimental design has proven suitable in determining the in vivo kinetics of these interstitial liposome deposits. When compared to free metrizamide which may be considered an analogue of water-soluble chemotherapeutics, the encapsulation of metrizamide in liposomes resulted in a retarded decline of the contrast enhancement. Diffusion of liposomes could not be detected and the X-ray attenuation values measured within the liposome deposits continuously decreased with time for both types of liposomes. In the case of multilamellar vesicles, this significantly corresponded to a zero order kinetics with a mean halflife of 300 h. An initial increment in the X-ray attenuation of the liposome deposits might be due to the interstitial absorption of the water component of the liposome-dispersion. Because of the pronounced retardation effect of multilamellar liposomes resulting in a 140-fold prolongation of the interstitial retention time of metrizamide and due to their release kinetics these vesicles may be an appropriate carrier system for a local interstitial chemotherapy modality. Small unilamellar vesicles having an interstitial half-life of 14 h may be used as a faster component of a composed therapy system.