ABSTRACT:Lung cancer represents a major health problem. Cytostatic and radiotherapeutic treatment is limited because of dose-limiting systemic toxicity and surgery as a result of its invasive nature. Therefore, we developed a catheterization model of selective pulmonary artery perfusion (SPAP) combining the properties of isolated lung perfusion and i.v. treatment to achieve higher local drug levels and equivalent systemic exposure. Sixteen pigs underwent SPAP using a clinically applied dose of gemcitabine (1 g/m 2 ). They furthermore underwent thoracotomy for tissue sampling. Three groups were treated with SPAP for 2 min with normal pulmonary blood flow, 50 and 90% flow reduction. Another group had SPAP for 10 min with normal blood flow. All the SPAP groups underwent catheterization of the left pulmonary artery. An additional group (n ؍ 4) was infused i.v. for 30 min using the same dose. Concentrations were analyzed with analysis of variance. Pulmonary peak concentrations (p ؍ 0.01) and areas under the curve (AUC) (p ؍ 0.001) of SPAP for 2 and 10 min were significantly higher compared with i.v., whereas SPAP for 10 min resulted in the highest AUC (p ؍ 0.045) compared with SPAP for 2 min. Flow reduction during SPAP resulted in inhomogeneous distribution. Liver levels, AUC (serum), and wet-to-dry ratios of all the SPAP groups were not significantly different compared with i.v. SPAP resulted in higher lung concentrations, whereas systemic exposure was comparable with i.v. Therefore, we advocate SPAP as a new method to be tested clinically to achieve down-staging of the tumor and lymph node status in lung cancer.Cancer is the leading cause of death before the age of 85 years, resulting in more than half a million deaths per year in the United States (Jemal et al., 2006). In 2005, primary lung cancer was the second leading cancer type in the United States with approximately 190,000 new cases to be estimated for 2006. Among all the cancer types, lung cancer has the highest death rate (Jemal et al., 2006).Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is usually treated by surgical resection, radiotherapy, and/or cytostatic drug administration, depending on the disease stage. Stage 1 (a and b) and 2 (a and b) NSCLCs are currently treated by surgical resection, whereas (adjuvant) cytostatic therapy is applied to stage 1b, 2, and 3 disease, resulting in a 5-year survival of 75, 60, 40, 20, and 15%, respectively (Spiro and Silvestri, 2005).An i.v. infusion is the desired route of cytostatic drug administration to achieve exposure of the primary lung tumor and distant disease, as well as resulting in a 5-year survival benefit of 4 to 14% compared with surgery alone (Betticher, 2005). However, this method is dose-limited by the occurrence of systemic toxicity like bone marrow suppression that limits exposure of the primary tumor and pulmonary (lymph node) metastases.In contrast, isolated lung perfusion with cytostatic drugs is an experimental surgical technique for the treatment of lung metastases that aims to destroy pulmonar...