SPLEEN PEPTIDES (POLYERGA(TM)) INHIBIT DEVELOPMENT OF ARTIFICIAL LUNGMETASTASES OF MURINE MAMMARY-CARCINOMA AND INCREASE EFFICIENCY OF CHEMOTHERAPY IN MICE

There are numerous attempts to find novel anticancer drugs or to impro ve therapeutic protocols based on application of chemotherapeutic agen ts and immunomodulators (biological response modifiers, cytokines, var ious plant or bacterial products). Among the preparations that have be neficial effects for the cancer bearing organism are preparations of s pleen peptides (Polyerga(TM)). Hence, we analyzed if treatment with sp leen oligopeptides GP-1 (active substance for the manufacture of Polye rga(TM) ampoules' solution injected as 0.5 mu g/kg every second day) i f given alone or combined with chemotherapy (Endoxan 50 mg/kg single i .p. dose) of mice bearing artificial lung metastases of mammary carcin oma will have an impact on the metastases count and survival of the an imals. The results obtained have shown that chemotherapy reduced metas tases count and increased survival of the tumor bearing mice, while th e use of GP-1 alone did not affect metastases development. However, co mbined GP-1 treatment and chemotherapy were more efficient in preventi on of the metastases development than chemotherapy alone. Thus, in mic e treated with GP-1 and Endoxan, the average metastases count was four times lower than in the mice treated by chemotherapy only, while 2/12 animals were without tumor nodules in the lungs. Finally, all the ani mals treated by chemotherapy alone died until the 42nd day after tumor transplantation, while at the same time, only 5/10 animals died recei ving combined therapy. Thus, these results give an experimental suppor t for the use of the spleen peptides in biotherapy (or combined therap y) of cancer.