title: Hydrazine sulfate in cancer patients with weight loss. A placebo-controlled clinical experience.
abstract: Hydrazine sulfate was evaluated using 24-hour dietary recalls and body weight determinations before and after 30 days of either placebo or hydrazine (60 mg, 3 times/d) oral administration in 101 heavily pretreated cancer patients with weight loss. After 1 month, 83% of hydrazine and only 53% of placebo patients completing repeat evaluation maintained or increased their weight (P less than 0.05). In addition, appetite improvement was more frequent in the hydrazine group (63% versus 25%, P less than 0.05). Although caloric intake was only slightly greater in hydrazine-treated patients, an increased caloric intake was more commonly associated with weight gain in patients receiving hydrazine compared with those receiving placebo (81% versus 53%, respectively). Hydrazine toxicity was mild, with 71% of patients reporting no toxic effects. Hydrazine sulfate circulatory levels were obtained from a subset of 14 patients who completed 30 days of treatment, with a single sample obtained in the morning at least 9 hours after the last dose. Mean maintenance hydrazine sulfate levels, determined using a spectrofluorometric assay, ranged from 0 to 89 ng/ml (mean 45 +/- 16 ng/ml). These data, which demonstrate an association between 1 month of hydrazine sulfate administration and body weight maintenance in patients with cancer, suggest future clinical trials of hydrazine sulfate are indicated to definitively assess its long-term impact on important clinical outcome parameters in defined cancer populations.
mesh_terms: D001066:Appetite / Q000187:drug effects; D001835:Body Weight / Q000187:drug effects; D002100:Cachexia / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology; D004361:Drug Tolerance; D002149:Energy Intake / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D006834:Hydrazines / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000188:drug therapy
chemical_list: D006834:Hydrazines; C029424:hydrazine