Liposomal Doxorubicin and Conventionally Fractionated Radiotherapy in the Treatment of Locally Advanced Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer and Head and Neck Cancer

Abstract

We conclude that combination of radiotherapy with Stealth liposomal doxorubicin is feasible. The potential role of such a regimen in the treatment of highly angiogenic tumors requires further investigation.

99mTc-labelled Stealth® liposomal doxorubicin (Caelyx®) in glioblastomas and metastatic brain tumours

“…Instant thin layer chromatography (ITLC) suggested an 80% labelling (Koukourakis et al, 1999), which is also a result found by Dr Laverman and colleagues. As additional more sophisticated analysis, performed by the later research group, failed to confirm this finding, it was suggested that the tumour and body imaging obtained in our studies is rather a result of 99m Tc-DTPA and not of labelled liposomes.…”

“…The results presented by Koukourakis et al (1999Koukourakis et al ( , 2000a should therefore be interpreted with caution.…”

“…This labelling method was described previously in more detail by the same group (Koukourakis et al, 1999). However, we have some major concerns about the labelling method and imaging protocol used in their studies (Koukourakis et al, 1999(Koukourakis et al, , 2000a.…”

“…This method, which has not been described in the literature before, is expected to yield an unstable radiolabelled product, since there is no driving force that will facilitate the hydrophilic 99m Tc-DTPA to pass the lipid bilayer and entrap the radiolabel inside the liposome. Moreover, the described quality control method (Koukourakis et al, 1999(Koukourakis et al, , 2000a does not discriminate between free 99m Tc-DTPA and liposome-associated 99m Tc-activity. The chromatographic method applied can distinguish between reduced 99m TcO 2 and unreduced 99m TcO 4 -, however, it is more essential to discriminate between liposome-associated 99m Tc-activity and 99m Tc-DTPA in the preparation.…”

“…Therefore, it appears that the images showing liposome uptake in the tumours (Koukourakis et al, 2000a) represent the accumulation of 99m Tc-DTPA, rather than uptake of the radiolabelled Caelyx. 99m Tc-DTPA was used in the past for diagnosis of a disrupted blood -brain barrier in brain tumours, before the CT and MRI era (Hauser et Figure 1 Elution profile of 99m Tc-DTPA-Caelyx 1 (labelled according to Koukourakis et al, 1999) and 111 In-oxinate-Caelyx 1 (labelled according to Laverman et al, 2001) on a 10 ml Sephadex G25 column. A sample of 100 ml was applied.…”