131I-rose bengal therapy in hepatoblastoma patients.

If conventional treatment modalities have failed in hepatoblastoma patients and no distant metastases can be demonstrated therapy with radionuclide agents can be considered. In 6 patients diagnostic technetium-99m (99mTc)-disofenin and two iodine-131 (131I)-rose bengal scans were made. 2 patients demonstrated specific uptake of disofenin. One of these had a positive scintigram with radiolabelled rose bengal. This patient was subsequently treated with 1.1 GBq 131I-rose bengal. No toxicity was observed. A clear decrease in the level of alpha-fetoprotein indicated a response and demonstrated that this radiopharmaceutical can be used for tumour targeted radiation therapy in selected patients with therapy resistant tumours.