Treatment of neoplastic pleural effusions with local instillations of quinacrine (mepacrine) hydrochloride

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Abstract
The local instillation of quinacrine (mepacrine) hydrochloride is used widely in the United States of America for the treatment of neoplastic pleural effusions. To date, there has been no report of the use of this treatment in the United Kingdom. We have studied the effect of treatment in 12 consecutive patients presenting with a variety of types of malignant pleural effusion and report our experiences. In all of our patients the effusion was successfully controlled and sideeffects were not unduly troublesome. We conclude that quinacrine is at least as effective as other forms of treatment of neoplastic pleural effusion and merits more attention.