Investigation of the action of a number of antitumor preparations on cultures of human tumors

Summary

Experiments were conducted on cultures of human tumor cells—of cancer of the uterine cervix (HeLa), cancer of the larynx HEr-2, and angiosarcoma (AS), as well as on those of cardiac endothelium of the “Cinomolgus” monkey. The author studied the action of the new Soviet antitumor preparations asalin, phenaphan, phenameth, acetylsarcolysin, and phenacyl, as well as of the existing preparations—embichin, dl-sarcolysin, d-sarcolysin and thio-TEPA. Investigations revealed that differences in the sensitivity of the tumor and normal tissue to the same preparations are also present in tissue culture. Thus, the effect of the complex alkylating metabolites (excepting dl-sarcolysin) on tumour cell cultures was 2–4 times greater than that exerted on cultures of normal cells. The varying effect of the preparations under study on different tumors could be also ascertained in tissue cultures. Thus, carcinoma of the uterine cervix and of the larynx appeared to be more sensitive to asalin, phenaphan, and phenamethane than did angiosarcoma, while the carcinoma, of the uterine cervix proved to be more resistant than carcinoma of the larynx to d-sarcolysin and Thio-TEPA.