Fig. 3

Topical co-application of 5-FU and SPIONs reduces mouse melanoma tumor growth. Melanoma tumors in 8 week old hairless mice were initiated by subcutaneous injection of 1 × 10⁴ B16F10-tdTomato mouse melanoma cells on the back of the mouse. Three days post cell injection, mice were treated with topical application at the tumor site of 60 µL of either saline alone, SPIONs alone, 5-FU (1 mM) alone or 5-FU plus SPIONs (1 mg/mL) three times a week (n = 5–8 mice per group). a Tumor size. **p < 0.01, repeated measures ANOVA. b Survival, in terms of the time taken for the tumor to reach 10 mm diameter. *p < 0.05, log-rank (Mantel–Cox) test