Experimental evaluation of antitumor drugs in the USA and USSR and clinical correlations
National Cancer Institute Monograph 1980(55): 1-179
1980
PMID: 7010179 Document Number: 5305
In the five years since the signing of the USA—USSR Agreement for Health Cooperation, successful implementation of the joint cancer program has been achieved through: 1) an exchange of scientists; 2) the exchange of data and information; 3) an exchange of antitumor drugs and biologic and technicologic materials; 4) joint research programs; and 5) joint publications. In the program of the Division of Cancer Treatment, National Cancer Institute, a new screening program has recently been instituted that removes screening from the realm of random empiricism and replaces the process with an experimental approach. It involves a prescreen comprised of leukemia P388 and a "by-pass" of the prescreen for compounds indicated by surveillance of the world's literature to have high biologic interest. Compounds active against P388 or selected to by-pass it are introduced into a screening panel comprised of human colon, breast, and lung tumors growing as xenografts in athymic mice and corresponding murine tumors growing in conventional mice. The program is designed to determine definitively whether the new screening panel has the capacity to improve prediction for activity of drugs in humans with cancer, both with respect to tumors in general and for tumors of organ-specific sites. In the Oncological Scientific Center of the USSR, Academy of Medical Sciences, among the transplantable tumors being used to select the new drugs, besides leukemia La and carcinoma 755, leukemia L1210 and Lewis lung tumor have been included in recent years. The in-depth study of active antitumor agents is being conducted on various highly differentiated, solid transplantable tumors of animals. For this purpose, tumors of the mammary gland, large intestine, lung, uterine cervix, and forestomach are being used. The most promising drugs are being studied on induced and spontaneous tumors in laboratory and domestic animals, as well as on human tumors growing in tissue culture. Great attention is being devoted to the study of the metabolism of the tumors and the mechanisms of action of the drugs. All these measures are directed at prediction of the effect of new antitumor agents in man. The present Monograph encompasses the testing of 30 American and 28 Soviet drugs in a spectrum comprised of a diversity of experimental tumor types, with comprehensive biologic and mathematical analyses pertaining to possible prognoses for therapeutic effects against specific categories of human tumors. It is significantly contributory to the development of new approaches in the screening programs for antitumor drugs at the National Cancer Institute and the Oncological Scientific Center of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences and to the collaborative effort in the conquest of cancer. In conjunction with the editors, we wish to express our gratitude to the many investigators and laboratories who contributed to this collaborative program.
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