Intra-individual comparison of therapeutic responses to vascular disrupting agent CA4P between rodent primary and secondary liver cancers

AIM: To compare therapeutic responses of a vascular-disrupting-agent, combretastatin-A4-phosphate (CA4P), among hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) and implanted rhabdomyosarcoma (R1) in the same rats by magnetic-resonance-imaging (MRI), microangiography and histopathology. METHODS: Thirty-six HCCs were created by diethylnitrosamine gavage in 14 rats that were also intrahepatically implanted with one R1 per rat as monitored by T2-/T1-weighted images (T2WI/T1WI) on a 3.0T clinical MRI-scanner. Vascular response and tumoral necrosis were detected by dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE-) and CE-MRI before, 1 h after and 12 h after CA4P iv at 10 mg/kg (treatment group n = 7) or phosphate-buffered saline at 1.0 mL/kg (control group n = 7). Tumor blood supply was calculated by a semiquantitative DCE parameter of area under the time signal intensity curve (AUC30). In vivo MRI findings were verified by postmortem techniques. RESULTS: On CE-T1WIs, unlike the negative response in all tumors of control animals, in treatment group CA4P caused rapid extensive vascular shutdown in all R1-tumors, but mildly or spottily in HCCs at 1 h. Consequently, tumor necrosis occurred massively in R1-tumors but patchily in HCCs at 12 h. AUC30 revealed vascular closure (66%) in R1-tumors at 1 h (P < 0.05), followed by further perfusion decrease at 12 h (P < 0.01), while less significant vascular clogging occurred in HCCs. Histomorphologically, CA4P induced more extensive necrosis in R1-tumors (92.6%) than in HCCs (50.2%) (P < 0.01); tumor vascularity heterogeneously scored +~+++ in HCCs but homogeneously scored ++ in R1-tumors. CONCLUSION: This study suggests superior performance of CA4P in metastatic over primary liver cancers, which could guide future clinical applications of vascular-disrupting-agents.​