DISTRIBUTION AND ANTI-TUMOR ACTIVITY OF ADRIAMYCIN GIVEN IN A HIGH-DOSE AND A REPEATED LOW-DOSE SCHEDULE TO MICE

Abstract

Experimental studies on the distribution of adriamycin (AM) under different treatment conditions and possible correlations between tissue and plasma levels and chemotherapeutic activity are discussed. C57BL/6J mice bearing intramuscular Lewis lung carcinoma and (C3H g O2O)F1 mice bearing mammary carcinoma were injected i.v. with AM at a single dose of 15 mg/kg or with the same total amount of drug administered in spaced doses of 3.75 mg/kg for 4 days. In the 2 experimental systems studied, the drug reached approximately the same value in the tumor and spleen with both types of treatment, but with the 3.75-mg/kg g 4 schedule lower AM concentrations were observed in the heart than with the single high-dose treatment. The therapeutic activity of the 2 treatments also differed: the autitumor and antimetastatic effect was the same in the 2 tumor systems, but with the 3.75-mg/kg g 4 schedule, increased survival and somewhat lower toxicity were observed. Daunorubicin, tested in the mammary carcinoma system with the 3 schedules of treatment, behaves similarly to AM in terms of distribution and chemotherapeutic effects.