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British Journal of Cancer logoLink to British Journal of Cancer
. 1982 Jun;45(6):843–850. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1982.136

N-methylformamide: antitumour activity and metabolism in mice.

A Gescher, N W Gibson, J A Hickman, S P Langdon, D Ross, G Atassi
PMCID: PMC2011036  PMID: 7201320

Abstract

The antitumour activities of N-methylformamide, N-ethylformamide and formamide against a number of murine tumours in vivo (Sarcoma 180, M5076 ovarian sarcoma and TLX5 lymphoma) have been estimated. In all cases N-methyl-formamide had significant activity, formamide had marginal or no activity and N-ethylformamide had no significant activity. N-methylformamide and N-ethylformamide were equitoxic to the TLX5 lymphoma in vitro. Formamide was found as a metabolite in the plasma and urine of animals given N-methylformamide and N-ethylformamide, but excretion profiles do not support the hypothesis that formamide is an active antitumour species formed from N-alkylformamides. No appreciable metabolism of N-methylformamide occurred under a variety of conditions with liver preparations in vitro. N-methylformamide, but not N-ethylformamide or formamide, reduced liver soluble non-protein thiols by 59.8% 1 h after administration of an effective antitumour dose.

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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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