Histological findings in the rat prostate cancer model during treatment with a luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone agonist and novantrone.

Morphological changes produced by the treatment with the D-tryptophan-6 analog of luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (D-Trp-6-LH-RH) and mitoxantrone (novantrone) were studied in the Dunning R3327H rat prostate cancer model. Microcapsules of D-Trp-6-LH-RH, calculated to release a controlled dose of 25 micrograms/day, were injected intramuscularly once a month. Novantrone (0.25 mg/kg body weight) was injected intravenously once every 3 weeks. The pathology of tumors was studied in two experiments. In the first experiment, the treatment was started 135 days after tumor transplantation, and the therapy was continued for 105 days. In the second experiment, the treatment was initiated 45 days after tumor transplantation, and was carried on for 70 days. The rats were divided into four groups: 1) untreated control, 2) microcapsule-injected, 3) novantrone-injected, and 4) combination of microcapsules and novantrone-injected. In both experiments, similar results were obtained, which included significant reduction in the tumor volume and weight, a very striking decrease in the number of epithelial tumoral cells with atrophy of the glandular epithelium, and an increase in the stromal connective tissue. All these changes were more prominent in the group treated with the combination of microcapsules and novantrone than in the groups treated with microcapsules or novantrone alone. Pathological results support the view that combined therapy may be more efficacious than the treatment with single agents.