Reproductive survival in vitro of recently explanted human tumour cells following exposure to vinblastine. A suggestion for improved clinical dose schedules

Ten years experience with a chemotherapy regime for ovarian cancer

In the period between January 1973 and September 1982, 57 patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer were treated with a chemotherapy regime of methotrexate, thiotepa, and vincristine. A 5-year survival rate of 24.1% was obtained. The chemotherapy regime was based on the mode of drug action and information gained from experimental work on fresh explant cultures of human tumor. The regime was well tolerated and the survival rate is similar to results obtained from other regimes recently reported.

High-performance liquid chromatographic determination of vinca-alkaloids in plasma and urine

A liquid chromatographic method is described for separating and determining vinblastine, vincristine and vindesine in plasma and urine. The drugs are extracted from the biological material using an ion-pair extraction, with sodium octylsulphate as counter-ion at pH 3. The extracts are injected on a reversed-phase system with a cyano column as stationary phase and a mobile phase composed of acetonitrile-phosphate buffer, pH 3 (65:35, vol. %). Stability studies are carried out for stock solutions of the drugs in water at different temperatures and pH values. The stability of these compounds in plasma is also investigated in the presence of an antioxidant. The method is applied to determine drug levels of vindesine and vinblastine in preliminary pharmacokinetic studies, using vincristine as the internal standard.

Comparison of cytotoxicity of single dose and infusion of alkylating agents

Both cytotoxicity and host toxicity were examined for the alkylating agents HN2, BCNU and L-PAM administered intravenously (IV) either as a single bolus injection or a 24-hour infusion. The bolus injection was more effective than the infusion schedule at a given dose for BCNU and L-PAM. Unexpectedly, the HN2 infusion schedule was more effective than bolus injection at a given dose. When host survival was the endpoint, both HN2 and L-PAM were shown to be more effective by the infusion schedule.