Table 1.

Treatment of LLC.

Compound	Dose (mg·kg−1)	Average tumor weight (mean ± S.D., g)	Inhibition of tumor growth (%)
Early treatment
controla	—	0.638 ± 0.01	—
HydroCuP	25	0.473 ± 0.12*	25.86
HydroCuP	35	0.273 ± 0.04**	57.21
HydroCuP	50	0.113 ± 0.04**	82.28
CDDP	1.5	0.168 ± 0.10**	73.66
Intermediate treatment
controla	—	0.502 ± 0.16	—
HydroCuP	30	0.088 ± 0.03**	82.37
HydroCuP	50	0.071 ± 0.02**	85.85
CDDP	1.5	0.061 ± 0.03**	87.84
Late treatment
controla	—	0.432 ± 0.21	—
HydroCuP	50 (days 9–11) 30 (days 12–14)	0.024 ± 0.03**	94.44
CDDP	1.5	0.118 ± 0.10**	72.68

^avehicle (0.9% NaCl).

Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) was implanted i.m. into the right hind leg of 8-week old imbred C57BL mice. After 24 h from tumor implantation, mice were randomly divided into groups of 8 animals (10 controls).

Early treatment: HydroCuP was dosed at 25, 35 and 50 mg/kg i.p. on days 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13 after tumor implantation. CDDP was dosed at 1.5 mg/kg i.p. on days 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13 after tumor implantation.

Intermediate treatment: Chemotherapy was delayed until the tumor became visible (day 7). Day 7–14: animal received 30 and 50 mg/kg of HydroCuP or 1.5 cisplatin mg/kg daily i.p.

Late treatment: Chemotherapy was delayed until the tumor became palpable (day 9). From day 9 to day 11, HydroCuP was dosed daily at 50 mk/kg i.p. whereas from day 12 to day 14 at 30 mg/kg i.p. CDDP was dosed daily at 1.5 mg/kg i.p.

At day 15 animals were sacrificed, legs amputated at the proximal end of the femur, and the inhibition of tumor growth was determined as the difference in weight of the tumor-bearing leg and the healthy leg expressed as percentage referred to the control animals. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01.