A review of clinical studies of pepleomycin.

Pulmonary toxicity was less frequent in pepleomycin treatment of squamous cell carcinoma than in bleomycin treatment. The tumor-regressing effect appeared at about day 10 of pepleomycin treatment, and at about day 21 of bleomycin treatment. The cumulative dose of pepleomycin to complete remission was smaller than that of bleomycin. Pepleomycin is effective against bleomycin-sensitive malignancies: squamous cell carcinoma and Hodgkin's disease. It is more effective than bleomycin against lymph node metastases. Pepleomycin may have a broader antitumor spectrum: prostatic carcinoma responded.