Summary
There is evidence that dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) can increase the anticancer activity of chemotherapeutic drugs. As DMSO is instilled into the bladder for interstitial cystitis, it could be readily adopted in clinical practice if it was found to enhance the effectiveness of the drugs used for intravesical chemotherapy. The purpose of this study was to investigate, using a human bladder cancer cell line, the hypothesis that DMSO enhances the activity of these agents. However, the addition of 4% DMSO to the four drugs most frequently used for intravesical chemotherapy (adriamycin, epodyl, mitomicin-c, thiotepa) did not increase tumour cell kill in vitro.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
American Cancer Society (1980) Cancer statistics. Cancer 30:24
Borenfreund E, Steinglass M, Korngold G, Bendich A (1975) Effect of dimethyl sulfoxide and dimethyl formamide on the growth and morphology of tumor cells. Ann NY Acad Sci 243:164–171
Borzelleca JF, Harris TM, Bernstein S (1968) The effect of Dimethyl Sulfoxide on the permeability of the urinary bladder. Invest Urol 6:43–52
Eksborg S, Edsmyr F, Nasland I (1982) Intravesical instillation with adriamycin+Tween 80 in patients with superficial bladder tumours. Eur Urol 8:213–215
Groos E, Walker, L, Masters JRW (1986) Intravesical chemotherapy: studies on the relationship between pH and cytotoxicity. Cancer 58:1199–1208
Hastings RJ, Franks LM (1981) Chromosome pattern, growth in agar, and tumorigenicity in nude mice of four human bladder carcinoma cell lines. Int J Cancer 27:15–21
Kim YS, Tsao D, Siddiqui B, Whitehead, JS, Arnstein P, Bennett BS, Hicks J (1980) Effects of sodium butyrate and dimethylsulfoxide on biochemical properties of human colon cancer cells. Cancer 45:1185–1192
Lum BL (1983) Intravesical Chemotherapy of Superficial Bladder Cancer. Recent Results Cancer Res 85:3–36
Masters JRW, Hepburn PJ, Walter L, Highman WJ, Trejdosiewicz LK, Povey S, Parkar M, Hill BJ, Riddle P, Franks LM (1986) Tissue culture model of transitional, cell carcinoma: characterisation of 22 human urothelial cell lines. Cancer Res 46:3630–3636
Mickey DD, Meadows LM, Vassiliades TA, Fried FA (1983) Dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) induced growth inhibition and differentiation of human prostatic adenocarcinoma cells in vitro. Proceedings of the 78th Congress of the American Urological Association, p 41 A
Parris CN, Arlett CF, Lehmann AR, Green MHL, Masters JRW (1988) Differential sensitivities to gamma radiation of human bladder and testicular tumour cell lines. Int J Radiat Biol 53:599–608
Parris CN, Masters JRW, Walker MC, Newman B, Riddle PR, English PJ (1987) Intravesical chemotherapy: combination with Tween 80 increases cytotoxicity in vitro. Urol Res 15:17–20
Riehm H, Biedler JL (1972) Potentiation of drug effect by Tween 80 in Chinese hamster ovary cells resistant to actinomycin-D and daunomycin. Cancer Res 32:1195–1200
Schoenfeld RH, Belville WD, Jacob WH, Buck AS, Dressner ML, Insalaco SJ, Ward GS (1983) The effect of dimethyl sulfoxide on the uptake of cisplatin from the urinary bladder of the dog: a pilot study. J Am Osteopath Assoc 82:570–573
Spruance SL, McKeough MB, Cardinal JR (1983) Dimethyl sulfoxide as a vehicle for topical antiviral chemotherapy. Ann NY Acad Sci 411:28–33
Stewart BH, Branson AC, Hewitt CB, Kiser WS, Straffon RA (1972) The treatment of patients with interstitial cystitis with special reference to intravesical DMSO. J Urol 107:377–380
Thuning CA, Fanshaw MS, Warren J (1983) Mechanisms of the synergistic effect of oral dimethyl sulfoxide on antineoplastic therapy. Ann NY Acad Sci 411:150–160
Tofilon PJ, Vines CM, Milas L (1985) Enhancement of in vitro chemotherapeutic activity by dimethyl sulfoxide. Clin Exp Metastasis 33:141–150
Torti FM, Lum BL (1984) The biology and treatment of superficial bladder cancer. J Clin Oncol 2:505–531
Utz DC, Hanash KA, Farrow GM (1970) The plight of the patient with carcinoma in situ of the bladder. J Urol 103: 160–164
Walker MC, Parris CN, Masters JRW (1987) Differential sensitivities of human testicular and bladder tumor cell lines to chemotherapeutic drugs. J Natl Cancer Inst 79:213–6
Warren J, Sacksteder MR, Jarosz H, Wasserman B, Andreiotti PE (1975) Potentiation of antineoplastic compounds by oral dimethyl sulfoxide in tumour-bearing rats. Ann NY Acad Sci 243:194–208
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Walker, L., Walker, M.C., Parris, C.N. et al. Intravesical chemotherapy: Combination with dimethyl sulfoxide does not enhance cytotoxicity in vitro. Urol. Res. 16, 329–331 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00263647
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00263647