Fig. 6

Diclofenac enhances the effect of radiotherapy in a LS174T xenograft mouse model. (A) Treatment schedule. C57/BL6J mice were exposed to a whole-body irradiation (3 Gy) to immunocompromise the animals. 24 h after irradiation, LS174T cells were injected subcutaneously (s.c.) into the right shoulder region. On day 7 after the tumor cell injection mice with identical tumor sizes were randomly divided into the following four groups each with 4 animals: control (ctrl, n = 4), diclofenac (Dic, n = 4), radiation (IR, n = 4) and diclofenac-radiation (Dic + IR, n = 4). In the diclofenac and diclofenac-radiation groups, mice received intraperitoneal injections of diclofenac (40 mg/kg) on days 7, 9 and 11. Then the diclofenac-radiation and radiation groups were locally irradiated with a single dose of 6 Gy on day 11. On day 16 all animals were euthanized and the tumors and organs were excised for analysis. (B) Tumor volume was measured regularly every 3 days with a digital caliper. Kruskal Wallis Test was used to evaluate significant differences (*p ≤ 0.05). (C) After euthanization the weights of the mice and the excised tumors were determined. Kruskal Wallis Test was used to evaluate significant differences (*p ≤ 0.05)