Phase II study of carminomycin in a human tumor cloning assay

Abstract

The anticancer activity of carminomycin was investigated in a human tumor cloning assay. No efficacy could be identified in the WiDr and the MCF7 cell lines which were highly responsive to doxorubicin. In addition, drug testing experiments were carried out in samples of various malignancies freshly obtained from 86 patients of whom 54 had not received prior anthracyclines. A reduction in the number of tumor colony forming units by 50% or more was seen in 1/26 breast cancers, 1/22 ovarian cancers and 1/7 melanomas. Cross-resistance studies indicated that eight tumors were responsive to doxorubicin only and one to carminomycin only whereas two were sensitive to both and 73 were resistant to both. This in vitro Phase II study corroborates the disappointing clinical results achieved with carminomycin.

In vitro cytotoxicity patterns of standard and investigational agents on human bone marrow granulocyte-macrophage progenitor cells

“…For the purpose of new drug screening, not uncommonly, the in vitro concentrations vary from a routine use of 10 Mg ml-I exposed continuously for the duration of culture to a range of concentrations over several logs e.g., 0.1, 1.0, 2.5, and 10.0/4ugml-l as continuous or 1 h exposure. The drugs are pursued further if the in vitro antitumour activity is present at lower two concentrations (Jiang et al, 1983a, b;Rozencweig et al, 1984Rozencweig et al, , 1985Salmon et al, 1981a, b;Shoemaker et al, 1984Shoemaker et al, , 1985. The relationship between a given concentration, e.g., l0 g ml-1, of one drug to that of another drug is completely unknown and can not be defined because the biologic activity of two drugs against human tumours may be quite different at the same concentration.…”