Effects of the dexamethasone and tamoxifen on the 99mTc-lipiodol tumor penetration tested on a model of rat hepato carcinoma

Different chemical agents, as the dexamethasone and the tamoxifen have been described as modifying the membranes fluidity. however, no study has evaluated the impact of fluidity on the cell incorporation of the lipiodol in the frame of hepato carcinoma. We have emitted the hypothesis that an increasing of the membrane fluidity by an external agent would allow to increase the cell permeability to the lipiodol. A such effect would have for interest to increase the tumor dosimetry and consequently the therapy efficiency. The conclusions are that the dexamethasone and the tamoxifen fluidify the cell membrane leading to an increase of the tumor incorporation of the lipiodol of 32% and 120% respectively. This way of action could be interesting to optimize the therapy efficiency of the labelled lipiodol. (N.C.)