Carbogen and nicotinamide as radiosensitizers in a murine mammary carcinoma using conventional and accelerated radiotherapy.

PURPOSE

To compare the radiosensitivity of mouse tumors treated in air with conventional and accelerated radiotherapy with that of tumors treated in carbogen alone or carbogen combined with nicotinamide.

METHODS AND MATERIALS

CaNT mammary tumors were irradiated with either 30 x-ray fractions in 6 weeks or 40 fractions in 26 days in air, carbogen alone, or carbogen combined with 120 mg/kg of nicotinamide (NAM), the latter given intraperitonealy 30 min before each fraction. The response to treatment was assessed using local control, weight loss, and metastasis-free survival.

RESULTS

Both carbogen and carbogen plus nicotinamide significantly increased tumor radiosensitivity; enhancement ratios (ERs) in the 6-week regimen were similar to those seen in the accelerated schedule. The majority of the effect was achieved by carbogen alone but the addition of NAM further enhanced tumor radiosensitization (ERs of 1.5 and 1.4 for carbogen in the conventional and accelerated schedule, respectively, were significantly lower than ERs of 1.7 and 1.6 obtained with carbogen plus nicotinamide; p < or = 0.005). Treatment protraction significantly increased radioresistance, especially when tumors were treated under air. An extra 1.5 Gy per day was required in air to counterbalance proliferation; in carbogen alone and carbogen plus nicotinamide a dose loss of 0.9 and 0.6 Gy per day was observed, respectively. Compared with treatments in air alone delivered in 6 weeks, acceleration of treatment combined with carbogen and nicotinamide gave the greatest increase in tumor radiosensitization (ER = 1.9). No toxic side effects and no detrimental changes in body weight were encountered when the sensitizers were administered 30 times (one fraction per day) or 40 times (two fractions per day). In both regimens, the incidence of metastases in mice treated with carbogen or carbogen plus nicotinamide was similar to that seen in animals treated in air. There was, however, a nonsignificant trend of a higher proportion of mice with metastasis in the accelerated schedule compared with the 6-week schedule.

CONCLUSIONS

In both conventional and accelerated experimental radiotherapy, carbogen alone or combined with a small clinically relevant dose of NAM were well tolerated, achieved large and significant increases in radiosensitization, and did not affect the incidence of metastases. The sparing of damage, resulting from extending the overall treatment time, was less when the sensitizers were administered than when irradiations were performed in air. The study suggests that clinical radiotherapy regimens, which aim to reduce hypoxic and/or tumor clonogen proliferation, would benefit from the use of carbogen, especially if the gas is combined with nicotinamide and treatment acceleration.