Inhibition of DNA repair, major objective of anticancer chemotherapy. Apropos of 680 cases with continuous platin bleomycin combination
Israël, L.; Breau, J.L.; Morere, J.F.; Lepage, E.; Aguilera, J.
Annales de Medecine Interne 136(1): 17-20
1985
ISSN/ISBN: 0003-410X PMID: 2408531 Document Number: 258716
Six hundred and eighty seven cases of cancers of various sites, essentially of squamous structure are presented. Their treatment consisted of a combination of cisplatinum, given 5 days in a row every 3 weeks and of continuously infused bleomycin, also 5 days every 3 weeks. Objective (greater than 50 p. 100) regressions were seen in 70 p. 100 of cases, a significantly greater proportion than obtained by other chemotherapies or by cisplatinum and bleomycin given for one day. This difference is attributed to the fact that bleomycin, a potent inhibitor of type II DNA polymerase, inhibits DNA repair. The authors evaluate the extent of DNA repair to be about 80 p. 100 of all the lesions created by platinum salts and consider DNA repair to be a major limitation of cytostatic therapy, often neglected in the design of chemotherapy protocols.