Destruction of human solid tumors by alkyl lysophospholipids.

Alkyl lysophospholipids (ALP) are synthetic analogs of the naturally occurring 2-lysophosphatidylcholine. The effect of ALP on the proliferation of 22 different gynecologic malignant tumors in humans was studied in vitro. ALP caused progressive death of tumor cells over 24-96 hours. In addition, tumor specimens from the tested human tumors were xenotransplanted into NMRI nude mice. ALP induced a highly significant retardation of the in vivo growing human tumors. Neither oral nor iv administration of these compounds caused any recognizable side effects.