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. 1978 Jun;37(6):1020–1025. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1978.148

Effect of Dose Fractionation on the Enhancement by Radiation or Cyclophosphamide of Artificial Pulmonary Metastases

J M Brown, G W Marsa
PMCID: PMC2009663  PMID: 678423

Abstract

Thoracic irradiation or cyclophosphamide (CP) treatment of mice before an i.v. injection of tumour cells enhances the number of lung colonies produced by a factor of up to 100+. The effect of fractionation of the X-ray or CP dose on this phenomenon was investigated in several ways.

The dose-response curve for the number of lung colonies as a function of the dose of thoracic irradiation was linear, and the degree of enhancement was independent of the number of tumour cells injected. Splitting a dose of 1,000 rad into 2 equal fractions separated by times varying from 1 to 24 h gave the same enhancement as that produced by a single dose of 1000 rad. Similarly, fractionation of 1000 rad into 5 × 200 rad, or 2000 rad into 5 × 400 rad (each interval between fractions being 3 h) had no effect on the radiation enhancement of colony formation.

A single dose of 200 mg/kg of CP was compared with 3 doses of 66·7 mg/kg (each dose separated by 12 h) and with a continuous infusion of 200 mg/kg given over 24 h. In this case, fractionation and infusion produced a small reduction in the CP-induced increase, but the factor of colony enhancement compared to control mice remained >100.

These data emphasize the potential hazard of prophylactic treatment of pulmonary metastases by X-rays or CP in clinical situations in which control of the primary tumour is not achieved.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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