Influence of Adriamycin on Growth Kinetics of Lewis Lung Carcinoma and Its Lung Metastases

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Abstract
Using a Gompertzian pharmacodynamic model, the changes induced by graded doses of adriamycin (AM) on the growth of i.m. [mouse] Lewis lung carcinoma (3LL) and its lung metastases was studied in C57Bl/6 mice. Unlike other tumors in which AM treatment induces no long-term change in growth parameters, in the 3LL model, after an initial phase of inhibited growth following treatment with AM, the theoretically attainable plateau value is lowered. This is dose dependent for the primary tumor and even more so for metastases. To investigate whether the drug effect was irreversible or whether the host''s weakened condition was a factor in the altered growth conditions, the tumor and its metastases were removed from AM-treated mice, and transplanted in healthy animals in which its growth was then observed over time. For transplants of the primary i.m. tumor no differences were seen between treated and nontreated mice; for the metastases the growth was markedly slowed. After a lag period, the tumors arising from metastases returned to a growth pattern whose kinetic parameters, analyzed statistically, were not different from controls.