CYTOCIDAL EFFECT OF ANTITUMOR ANTIBIOTICS IN-VITRO - APPLICATION TO INTRAOPERATIVE SALVAGING AUTOTRANSFUSION DURING REMOVAL OF MALIGNANCIES

An in vitro study of the minimum cytocidal conditions required for the use of antitumor antibiotics with salvaging autotransfusion (SAT) was made in order to devise a method for eliminating malignant cells, whi ch can contaminate red cells during SAT. A B-16 Harding Passey melanom a was excised and suspended in saline. Cells from this tumor were expo sed to various concentrations of mitomycin C, chromomycin A3, aclarubi cin or doxorubicin for 10, 15 or 20 min. Then, 10(6) cells were rinsed with saline and implanted into the subcutaneous tissue of nine health y BDF-1 mice for each exposure condition; i.e. the concentration of th e antitumor agent and the exposure time. During the subsequent 4 month s, the implanted cells were observed for the occurrence of regional tu mor formation or remote metastasis. When an exposure condition inhibit ed tumor cell implantation in all 9 animals, 58 additional animals rec eived the same exposure and 58 other animals received one grade less o f exposure, i.e. either a shorter exposure time or a lower concentrati on of the antitumor agent. We concluded from our results that the mini mal treatment for the prevention of implantation of tumor cells was 15 min exposure to either 400 mu/mL of mitomycin C or 500 mug/mL of chor omomycin A3 or 20 min exposure to either 1 mg/mL of aclarubicin or 10 mg/mL of doxorubicin. These results indicate that SAT can be used safe ly; i.e. transplantation of malignant cells from a pathological lesion can be avoided when the red cell concentrate is treated with an adequ ate dose of antitumor antibiotic.