COMBINATION ANTITUMOR THERAPY WITH RABBIT TUMOR NECROSIS FACTOR AND CHEMO-THERAPEUTIC AND IMMUNO-THERAPEUTIC AGENTS AGAINST MURINE TUMORS

  • 1 January 1985
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 76  (7) , 631-636
Abstract
The antitumor activity of partially purified rabbit tumor necrosis factor (TNF) in combination with lentinan or chemotherapeutic agents was tested. Partially purified TNF was obtained from TNF-containing rabbit sera by salt precipitation and ion-exchange chromatography. Its specific activity, determined in vitro as its cytotoxic activity against L929 cells in the presence of actinomycin D, was 105 U/mg protein or about 30-fold that of the crude rabbit sera. The growths of MH134 hepatoma in C3H/He mice and Lewis lung carcinoma in C57BL/6 mice were partially inhibited by intratumoral administration of a suboptimal dose of the TNF preparation. Additional treatment with lentinan, actinomycin D, mitomycin C or adriamycin significantly increased the antitumor activity. In particular, combination therapy with TNF and lentinan was very effective against MH134 hepatoma without having detectable side-effects, showing that lentinan expanded the therapeutical potential of TNF. These results are discussed in relation to previous results on combination antitumor therapy.