Effect of a perfluorochemical emulsion on the development of artificial lung metastases in mice

Intravenous infusions of perfluorochemical emulsions, combined with administration of inspired oxygen or carbogen have been found to improve tumor oxygenation and increase the response of solid tumors in animals to radiotherapy. Fluosol-DA 20 per cent, the only perfluorochemical emulsion currently approved for testing in humans in the United States, has recently entered clinical trials as an adjunct to radiotherapy in the treatment of head and neck carcinoma. The studies reported here were undertaken as part of our laboratory evaluation of the safety and clinical potential of this oxygen-transport fluid as an adjunct to cancer therapy; they asked whether single or multiple treatments with Fluosol and an oxygen-enriched atmosphere produced immunologic perturbations, pulmonary damage, or other effects which altered the development of artificial lung metastases in experimental animals. Neither single nor multiple treatments with clinically relevant regimens of Fluosol and carbogen (95 per cent O2/5 per cent CO2) had any effect on the development of lung nodules from intravenously injected EMT6 tumor cells.