Long-term treatment of tumor-operated mice with high doses of alpha-difluoromethylornithine.
Mice inoculated subcutaneously with a mammary adenocarcinoma M3cell suspension and submitted 10 to 15 days later to the surgical removal of primary tumors have been chosen in our laboratory as the experimental model to study the effect of several drugs on metastasis spreading. A 90-day treatment of tumor-operated mice with high doses of alpha-difluoromethylornithine showed, in addition to a marked decrease of lung metastases, several side effects including a loss of body weight, a delay of surgical wound healing and a reduced number of megakaryocytes in bone marrow. The measurement of ceruloplasmin in serum has indicated that treated animals contained increased levels of this oxidase activity in spite of the polyamine depletion caused by alpha-difluoromethylornithine. These results rule out a direct correlation between ceruloplasmin activity and polyamine concentration.
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D000818:Animals; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000473:pathology; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D000518:Eflornithine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D008325:Mammary Neoplasms, Experimental / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis
D000518:Eflornithine