Radiation injury to the skin is one of the major limiting factors in radiotherapy. We designed this study using Sprague-Dawley rats to evaluate the reduction in skin injury achieved using natural products from plant extracts as protection. The acute skin reaction in tetrandrine- and Madecassol-treated animals appeared earlier, but was significantly less severe, than in the control group. The peak skin reactions in the tetrandrine group were less serious than those of the control group at three different radiation doses. At a high dose irradiation, the healing effect of tetrandrine is better than Madecassol and vaseline. The histologic findings indicate that tetrandrine and Madecassol are able to reduce acute radiation reactions by their anti-inflammatory activity.
Tumor metastasis is a major cause of mortality in cancer patients. The anti-metastatic effect of tetrandrine, an alkaloid isolated from Stephania tetrandrae S. Moore, was investigated in a pulmonary metastatic model of colorectal cancer-bearing mice. Tetrandrine decreased the viability of murine colorectal adenocarcinoma CT26 cells in a time- and dose-dependent manner. CT26 cells were injected into BALB/c mice via a tail vein to establish pulmonary metastases. After this, the mice were given intraperitoneal injections of tetrandrine (10 mg/kg/day), 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) at the same dose, or vehicle for 5 consecutive days. Mice treated with tetrandrine had 40.3% fewer metastases than vehicle-treated mice, and those treated with 5-FU had 36.9% fewer metastases than controls. Both tetrandrine- and 5-FU-treated mice survived longer than mice in the untreated control group. There was no acute toxicity or obvious changes in body weight in any of the mice. These results suggest that tetrandrine may be a useful anti-metastatic agent.
From January 1980 to December 1985, a total of 110 patients with postoperative recurrent uterine cervical carcinoma were treated with radiotherapy. The mean age was 53 years. Ten patients were excluded due to incomplete treatment. The population was grouped according to the classification by Ciatto et al. into patients with central recurrence (n = 48), with peripheral limited recurrence (n = 43), and with peripheral massive recurrence (n = 9). The midpelvic dose given to patients with central recurrence was 40 to 45 Gy, followed by a boost given either by perineal teletherapy with 30 Gy or brachytherapy with 30 Gy at 0.5 cm. beneath the vaginal mucosa. For the peripheral group, the midpelvic dose was 50 Gy followed by a boost of 10 Gy through reduced portals. Further boost to the vaginal mucosa was given by either of the two methods mentioned above. The overall 5-year survival rate was 28%. In the group with central recurrence, it was 42% and in the group with peripheral recurrence 15%. Sixteen patients had persistent local tumor and 15 patients developed distant metastasis. Complications noted were proctitis (5%), cystitis (2%), vesicovaginal fistula (2%) and rectovaginal fistula (2%). Our data clearly indicate that radiotherapy was effective in controlling central recurrence, but for peripheral recurrence, control rate and prognosis were less favorable.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.