Purpose: To assess the effectiveness of Doppler Ultrasonography (DUS) in evaluating the anti-angiogenic effect of thalidomide.
Materials and methods: [corrected] Forty patients with metastases of cancer of the kidney were included in a phase II therapeutic trial. Twenty eight had tumor targets which could be evaluated by DUS. Before treatment, the volume was studied in 59 tumors and the vascularity in 54 tumors. During treatment, comparative DUS examinations were performed every 6 weeks.
Results: Before treatment, the mean tumor volume was 41 cm3, more than 10 vessels were visible in 57% of them. A correlation was noted between the size of the tumors and the degree of vascularity. A stabilisation of tumor volume correlated with a decrease in the number of vessels and an increase in vascularity preceding an increase in tumor volume were also observed.
Conclusion: DUS is effective in assessing tumour size and vascularity.
Copyright John Libbey Eurotext 2003.