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. 1997 Jan;123(1):21–24. doi: 10.1007/BF01212610

Cyclosporin A enhances locoregional metastasis of the CC531 rat colon tumour

W Van de Vrie 1,2, R L Marquet 2, A M M Eggermont 1,2
PMCID: PMC12200146  PMID: 8996536

Abstract

The immunosuppressive drug cyclosporin A has been evaluated recently in phase II trials in cancer therapy as a reverter of P-glycoprotein-mediated multidrug resistance. As an immunosuppressive agent, cyclosporin A potentially can enhance tumour growth. We investigated this potency of cyclosporin A in the weakly immunogenic CC531 colon adenocarcinoma model, using the same dose that had previously been shown to intensify the antitumour activity of doxorubicin in vivo. In vitro cyclosporin A caused no growth acceleration and only in high doses was growth inhibition of CC531 cells observed. In vivo no evidence of growth enhancement was found in short-term assays but, after 4 weeks, rats treated with cyclosporin A had a significantly higher tumour load, mainly consisting of locoregional metastases. These experiments in the CC531 tumour model show that cyclosporin A, used as a reverter of multidrug resistance, may produce short-term improvement of antitumour activity but may also induce enhancement of tumour metastasis.

Key words: Cyclosporin A, Growth promotion, Metastasis, Multidrug resistance

Abbreviation

MDR

multidrug resistance

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