Intrathecal chemotherapy with MX2 for treating glioma dissemination in vivo

We examined whether the intrathecal MX2 chemotherapy for treating dissemina tion of malignant glioma would be a feasible therapy. In the toxicity study , physiological and histological neurotoxicity was not observed in the rats treated with less than 100 mug/kg of MX2 administered intracisternally. Bu t physiological side effects were observed in the treatment group of more t han 200 mug/kg and histological brain toxicity was in the treatment group o f more than 1000 mug/kg. Dissemination models were induced in rats by intra cisternal inoculation of C6 glioma cells. The median survival times of the rats treated with 100 mug/kg of intrathecal MX2 on day 1, 3, or 7 after tum or inoculation were prolonged by 52.4% (p=0.0006), 31.5% (p=0.0007), and 7. 1% (p=0.0180), respectively, compared to that of untreated control animals. Intrathecal MX2 treatment also cured 33.6% of rats in the treatment group. These findings suggested that there was a possibility that intrathecal MX2 would be a safe and effective method for treating dissemination of maligna nt glioma.