Pressure-Enabled Drug Delivery Significantly Increases Intra-Arterial Delivery of Embolic Microspheres to Liver...

This study aimed to test the hypothesis that pressure-enabled drug delivery (PEDD) with a pressure-modulating microcatheter device (TriNav; TriSalus Life Sciences, Westminster, Colorado) would increase delivery of microspheres via hepatic arterial infusion to liver tumors in an Oncopig model (Sus Clinicals, Chicago, Illinois) when compared with a conventional end-hole microcatheter. Trisacryl gelatin microspheres (100-300 μm in size) were fluorescently labeled and infused into porcine liver tumors using conventional technique (n = 8) or by PEDD (n = 8). Liver tissue was harvested, and images were analyzed with a custom deep learning algorithm (Visiopharm, Hørsholm, Denmark) to quantitate signal intensity. PEDD increased microsphere penetration into the tumor by 227% (P = .029) when compared with conventional methodology and improved the tumor-to-normal tissue ratio from 2.7 to 4.2. These data demonstrate improved delivery into tumor tissue using PEDD, along with improved selectivity by minimizing relative off-target deposition.