Regional measurements of blood flow (F) were performed in transplanted intracerebral RG-2 rat
gliomas using [14C]
iodoantipyrine, Kety-Schmidt blood flow equations, and quantitative autoradiography. Twenty-nine intracranial
tumors in ten rats were analyzed by location; 18 intraparenchymal, seven meningeal, two third-ventricular, and two fourth-ventricular
tumors were studied. For all
tumors, averaged mean F was 91 +/- 33 (S.D.) ml/hg/min. In all but one
tumor, mean F was intermediate between normal cortex and corpus callosum values. There was moderate regional variation: averaged mean F was lower in
tumor center (78 +/- 47 ml/hg/min) than in
tumor periphery (93 +/- 30 ml/hg/min). Within individual
tumors, F showed moderate variation which correlated to some extent with histological features; a regional F of less than 10 ml/hg/min was observed in only one
tumor within an area of
necrosis. F in regions of brain immediately surrounding the
tumor was higher than in
tumor periphery. Blood flow to RG-2
tumors seems unlikely to limit
drug delivery any more than to normal brain, and the consistent levels from
tumor to
tumor and within individual
tumors make the RG-2 model an excellent one with which to study
drug delivery in experimental
brain tumors.