[Dacarbacine (DTIC) in the therapy of a malignant disease. A review (author's transl)].

Indications and results are reviewed with regard to recent data on the effect of DTIC in patients with malignant melanoma, soft tissue sarcomas, Hodgkin's disease, gastrointestinal carcinomas and oat cell cancer of the lung. Whilst this drug induced--mainly partial--remissions in 25% of the patients with melanomas, it is generally used in other malignant conditions in combination with other cytoxic agents. In soft tissue sarcomas adriamycin appeared as the principal additional drug. In patients with Hodgkin's disease resistant to MOPP treatment and requiring additional cytotoxic drugs, combination chemotherapy including DTIC may induce remissions in more than half of these patients. Other schedules were, however, also effective and results in this difficult group of patients are discussed and compared. In gastrointestinal and in oat cell carcinomas cytotoxic protocols including DTIC have shown some effect, perhaps comparable to other combinations usually employed in these conditions.