EFFECT OF VERY HIGH SINGLE-DOSE OF CISPLATINUM AND OF RADIATION ON THE BRAIN OF THE RABBIT

The importance of chemotherapy and radiotherapy for treating brain tum ors, is well established. In a previous study, a rabbit's brain was tr eated with doses of up to 12 mg kg(-1) of cisplatinum and 4000 cGy, wi thout any morphological or pathological changes. The purpose of this s tudy is to establish the effect of very high single doses of cisplatin um and radiation on the rabbit's brain, applied in 12, 16 and 18 mg kg (-1), and 5000, 7500 and 8000 cGy, respectively. The general clinical and neurological condition of the rabbits was unaffected, but areas of alopecia and scalp ulcers appeared. Although these are very high dose s of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, the histopathological and morpholo gical examination of the rabbit's brain remained normal.