Responsiveness of subcutaneous human glioma xenografts to various antitumor agents.

Responsiveness of seven human glioma xenografts to seven antitumor agents was investigated by an sc-iv system and the efficacies of these agents against human glioma were evaluated in terms of response rate. When their maximum tolerated doses were used, experimental response rates of nimustine (ACNU), vincristine (VCR), adriamycin (ADR) and vinblastine (VLB) were as high as 86-100%, while that of mitomycin (MMC) was 57%, and those of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and methotrexate (MTX) were 0%. On the other hand, when the doses pharmacokinetically equivalent to their clinical doses were employed, the response rate of ADR was the highest, followed by VCR and ACNU in this order. These results suggest that gliomas are significantly responsive to various antitumor agents in this sc-iv system.