Fig. 6. Combination therapy with DTIP and gefitinib results in improved antitumor efficacy.

LLC cells (1 × 10⁶) were subcutaneously injected into the right dorsal region of mice. One week after LLC inoculation, the mice were randomly divided into four groups: normal saline, DTIP (1 mg/kg per day, s.c.), gefitinib (100 mg/kg per day, i.g.), and combination DTIP with gefitinib treatment groups, and then the mice were administered DTIP, gefitinib, or normal saline for 21 consecutive days. a Tumor growth curve after injection of LLC cells. b Mice were humanely killed and the tumors were resected 45 days after cell injection. c The weight of resected tumors was determined in different groups. d Representative photograph of metastatic nodules in the lungs (upper). H&E-stained sections of representative single lung lobes (bottom). e Number of mice with lung metastasis. f The number of VM tubes per tumor tissue sample was determined in different groups. g Representative images of anti-mouse anti-CD31/PAS staining in tumor tissues (upper). Immunohistochemical analysis was performed to determine the expression of VEGF (bottom). h The expression score for VEGF was determined. All the results are expressed as the mean ± SD. The error bars indicate the SD. ANOVA followed by Dunnett’s test was applied for multiple comparisons. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, NS, not significant