Anticancer effects of arterial administration of the anticancer agent SMANCS with lipiodol on metastatic lymph nodes

A new method of arterially administering an oily anticancer agent was successfully established for the selective targeting of metastatic lymph nodes. A high molecular weight anticancer agent, a conjugate of copolymer (styrene maleic acid) to neocarzinostatin (SMANCS) was prepared in our laboratory and dissolved in a lymphographic oily contrast medium, Lipiodol (SMANCS/Lipiodol). SMANCS/Lipiodol was administered intraoperatively to eight patients with colorectal cancer and preoperatively to one patient with gastric cancer with lymph node metastases. In six of the patients with colorectal cancer, the drug was administered via an artery and in the other two patients the drug was injected into the wall of the colon near the primary cancer. In the patient with gastric cancer, the drug was administered via the left gastric artery. Delivery of the drug to the lymph nodes was examined roentgenologically and the anticancer effect was examined histologically. The results showed that SMANCS/Lipiodol could be delivered to the metastatic lymph node via the artery, but it could not be delivered to the metastatic lesion of the lymph node via the lymphatic route. In the patient with gastric cancer, SMANCS/Lipiodol preoperatively administered via an artery was found to remain selectively in a metastatic lymph node and an anticancer effect was histologically proved in all three of the metastatic lymph nodes.