Spiromustine and intracarotid artery cisplatin in the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme

Strategies for Improved Intra-arterial Treatments Targeting Brain Tumors: a Systematic Review

Conventional treatments for brain tumors relying on surgery, radiation, and systemic chemotherapy are often associated with high recurrence and poor prognosis. In recent decades, intra-arterial administration of anti-cancer drugs has been considered a suitable alternative drug delivery route to intravenous and oral administration. Intra-arterial administration is believed to offer increasing drug responses by primary and metastatic brain tumors, and to be associated with better median overall survival. By directly injecting therapeutic agents into carotid or vertebral artery, intra-arterial administration rapidly increases intra-tumoral drug concentration but lowers systemic exposure. However, unexpected vascular or neural toxicity has questioned the therapeutic safety of intra-arterial drug administration and limits its widespread clinical application. Therefore, improving targeting and accuracy of intra-arterial administration has become a major research focus. This systematic review categorizes strategies for optimizing intra-arterial administration into five categories: (1) transient blood-brain barrier (BBB)/blood-tumor barrier (BTB) disruption, (2) regional cerebral hypoperfusion for peritumoral hemodynamic changes, (3) superselective endovascular intervention, (4) high-resolution imaging techniques, and (5) others such as cell and gene therapy. We summarize and discuss both preclinical and clinical research, focusing on advantages and disadvantages of different treatment strategies for a variety of cerebral tumor types.

Anti-cancer activity studies of indolalthiohydantoin (PIT) on certain cancer cell lines

5-(2-Phenyl-3'-indolal)-2-thiohydantoin (PIT) has been evaluated as an anti-cancer compound on several cancer lines organised in to subpanels representing leukemia, melanoma, and cancer of lung, colon, kidney, ovary, breast, prostate and central nervous system by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) anti-cancer drug screen programme. The compound showed inhibitory activity on several cancer cell lines. No information is available on anti-cancer potency of this compound with normal cell lines.