# Ethiodized oil

Source: https://onco.cc/drugs/ethiodized-oil/  
OnCo record `ethiodized-oil` (Treatment). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Lipiodol is an iodine-rich oil injected into the liver's artery that lodges in liver tumours; it lets radiologists see them on CT and is the vehicle that carries chemotherapy into the tumour in conventional chemoembolisation for liver cancer.

## Summary

Ethiodized oil has been approved in the United States since 1954, originally for lymphangiography and hysterosalpingography. In 2014 the FDA added selective hepatic intra-arterial use for imaging tumours in adults with known hepatocellular carcinoma, formalising its decades-old role in conventional transarterial chemoembolisation, where it is emulsified with doxorubicin or cisplatin and injected before the feeding vessels are blocked. The oil is also the carrier for iodine-131 lipiodol and for imaging hepatocellular carcinoma nodules on follow-up CT. Guerbet manufactures it.

## Fields

- Kind: Treatment
- Status: established
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Also known as: Ethiodol; Iodised poppy-seed oil
- Tags: gap-fill; chembl-universe
- Brand: Lipiodol
- Modality: Oily iodinated contrast agent for hepatic arterial injection
- Mechanism: An iodinated poppy-seed oil that is retained selectively by hepatocellular carcinoma after hepatic arterial injection, both showing the tumour on CT and carrying chemotherapy into it during chemoembolisation.
- Approvals: US 1954: Lymphangiography and hysterosalpingography; selective hepatic intra-arterial imaging of hepatocellular carcinoma added in 2014

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiodized_oil
- Drugs@FDA NDA009190: https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/daf/index.cfm?event=overview.process&ApplNo=009190
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiodized_oil

## Connected records

- cancers: [Hepatocellular carcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/hcc/)
- technologies: [Transarterial chemoembolisation (TACE)](https://onco.cc/technologies/tace/)
- drugs: [Doxorubicin](https://onco.cc/drugs/doxorubicin/)
- companies: [Guerbet](https://onco.cc/companies/guerbet/)
- trials: [Endovascular Brachytherapy Combined With Stent Placement and TACE for HCC With Main Portal Vein Tumor Thrombus](https://onco.cc/trials/nct02971345/), [Liver Resection Versus Transarterial Chemoembolization for the Treatment of Intermediate-stage Hepatocellular Carcinoma](https://onco.cc/trials/nct02755311/), [Phase II Trial of Lung Chemoemobolization](https://onco.cc/trials/nct05672108/), [Transarterial Chemoembolization Compared With Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy or Stereotactic Ablative Radiation Therapy in Treating Patients With Residual or Recurrent Liver Cancer Undergone Initial Transarterial Chemoembolization](https://onco.cc/trials/nct02762266/)

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