Scheme of the study’s experimental design.

<p>Tumor cells (DHD or RH cells) were inoculated subcutaneously (1x10⁶ tumor cells/rat) and allowed to develop for 14 days (day 0). At this time, the rats were subjected to the first FDG PET/CT, to have a baseline of the animals’ metabolic status, both in the intestine and the tumors. At day 1, the rats bearing tumors were divided into 3 groups of 7 animals, for the respective treatments on days 1 to 4: the control and irradiated group received saline; and the third group received recombinant human GH (1 mg/kg/day). On days 3 and 4, all the animals except the control group were exposed to 6 Gy abdominal irradiation (0.92 Gy/min). At 72 h after the last irradiation (day 7), the animals were subjected to a second FDG PET/CT and euthanized.