Drug sensitivity of rat bladder cancer in syngeneic hosts and athymic nude mice.

The effects of chemotherapeutic agents on BC-47 rat bladder cancer were investigated in nude mice and syngenetic hosts to clarify the influence of host factors on chemotherapy. The BC-47 cancer was rich in stroma and lacked central necrosis in syngeneic ACI/N rats. In contrast, in nude mice it had little stroma and underwent necrosis in the center, and cancer cells proliferated primarily at the periphery in contact with the normal host tissue. The cancer showed similar patterns of sensitivity to bleomycin, 1,3-bis (2-chloroethyl)-1-nitro-sourea, 5-fluorouracil, and mitomycin C in both hosts. In contrast, adriamycin and pyranyl secalonic acid D (pyranyl secalonic acid) had different effects in the two hosts, being significantly effective in rats, but ineffective in nude mice.