Local arterial versus systemic adriamycin infusion therapy for sarcoma transplanted in the rat kidney

The course of growth of a 20-methyl-cholanthrene-induced sarcoma was studied in the rat kidney. The volume growth was exponential, with a volume doubling time of approximately 20 hours from day 6 to day 10 after implantation. The potential doubling time, as assessed by the stathmokinetic method with colcemid, was 18 hours during this period. After treatment with adriamycin (Adm) at 5 mg/kg body weight, a tumor growth delay of 3 days was seen in animals given Adm by selective, constant-rate infusion into the renal artery; in contrast to a 2 days' delay for the animals given intravenous (i.v.) Adm. The mitotic index was significantly lower in tumors given intra-arterial (i.a.) infusion of Adm compared to i.v. administration 24 hours after treatment. No significant difference in mitotic index was seen after 48 hours. From day 4 after treatment, all tumors had recovered to the same exponential volume growth as the untreated controls. At day 8 after treatment, the difference between the treatment groups had vanished and no significant difference was seen between i.v. treated tumors and untreated controls. Simultaneous i.v. infusion of Angiotensin-II (in order to increase the concentration of the selectively infused Adm) during i.a. infusion gave no further effect on tumor volume growth or mitotic index. The variation in effect with selective arterial infusion may be due to partial obstruction of the renal circulation by the catheter, as shown by renal blood flow measurements with radio-nuclide-labeled microspheres, administered before and after the selective catheterization.