Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility of radioimmunotherapy (RIT) with radiolabeled antiĉ arcinoembryonic antigen antibodies after complete resection of liver metastases (LM) from colorectal cancer. Patients and Methods: Twenty-two patients planned for surgery of one to four LM received a preoperative diagnostic dose of a 131 I-F(ab ¶) 2^l abeled anti-carcinoembryonic antigen monoclonal antibody F6 (8-10 mCi/5 mg).
131I-F(ab ¶) 2 uptake was analyzed using direct radioactivity counting, and tumor-to-normal liver ratios were recorded. Ten patients with tumor-to-normal liver ratios of >5 and three others were treated with a therapeutic injection I/50 mg F(ab ¶) 2 ] 30 to 64 days after surgery. Results: Median 131 I-F(ab ¶) 2 immunoreactivity in patient serum remained at 91% of initial values for up to 96 hours after injection. The main and dose-limiting-toxicity was hematologic, with 92 % and 85 % grades 3 to 4 neutropenia and thrombocytopenia, respectively. Complete spontaneous recovery occurred in all patients. No human anti-mouse antibody response was observed after the diagnosis dose; however, 10 of the 13 treated patients developed human anti-mouse antibody f3 months later. Two treated patients presented extrahepatic metastases at the time of RIT (one bone and one abdominal node) and two relapsed within 3 months of RIT (one in the lung and the other in the liver). Two patients are still alive, and one of these is diseasefree at 93 months after resection. At a median follow-up of 127 months, the median disease-free survival is 12 months and the median overall survival is 50 months. Conclusion: RIT is feasible in an adjuvant setting after complete resection of LM from colorectal cancer and should be considered for future trials, possibly in combination with chemotherapy, because of the generally poor prognosis of these patients.Surgical resection is the most effective therapy for isolated liver metastases (LM) from colorectal cancer (CRC; refs. 1 -4) and offers the only possibility of cure in these patients. When complete resection is achieved, 5-year survival rates ranging from 25% to 41% have been reported (2, 3, 5 -7). However, approximately two-thirds of patients relapse, often in the first 2 years, demonstrating the need for efficient postoperative therapies capable of sterilizing microscopic disease. Although chemotherapy in this setting has enhanced disease-free survival (DFS), it has not clearly shown a survival advantage. Efforts have thus been focused on immunotherapy and radioimmunotherapy (RIT) with native or radiolabeled monoclonal antibodies (mAb) based on impressive results in the treatment of non -Hodgkin lymphoma (8 -10). Studies of radiolabeled mAb in the adjuvant setting of CRC or with small volume disease have been reported (11,12), although success with bulky, metastatic tumors from CRC has been limited (13 -15). At our institution, an initial phase I study involving patients with nonresectable and chemorefractory LM from CRC showed that the maximal tolerated dose of 131