The UCLA team performed 284 CT-guided injections on 29 patients with metastatic kidney cancer. The patients received up to three cycles of six weekly injections. In each case, the researchers successfully injected the therapeutic agent into the tumor.

None of the patients experienced serious side effects. Minor complications occurred in 14.8 percent of injections. The most common complication was air collection in the chest ” for which one patient required drainage.

The patients received local anesthesia around the injection site each time and tolerated the weekly procedure well, Suh said. The complication rate did not increase with the number of injections.

"Our findings validate that CT-guided injection of therapeutic genes is safe and feasible," Suh said.

The biotechnology firm Vical funded the study. Suh's UCLA co-authors included Dr. Jonathan Goldin, Dr. Amanda Wallace, Dr. Ramon Sheehan and Dr. Stefan Heinze, as well as UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center members Dr. Barbara Gitlitz and Dr. Robert Figlin.

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