Mitomycin-C as a prototype bioreductive alkylating agent: in vitro studies of metabolism and cytotoxicity.

The bioreductive alkylating agents are prodrugs for chemotherapy which are enzymatically reduced within cells to species capable of alkylating biological molecules and producing cytotoxic damage. Studies presented in this report show that MIT-C has the characteristics expected of a bioreductive alkylating agent: activation to alkylating species occurs more readily under hypoxic conditions and the drug is selectively cytotoxic to hypoxic cells.