Experimental Studies on the Pulmonary Toxicity of Combined Bleomycin and Cyclophosphamide Administration in Rats

Bleomycin 과 Cyclophosphamide 의 병용투여가 흰쥐의 폐독성에 미치는 영향

  • Published : 1989.12.01

Abstract

Bleomycin and cyclophosphamide are widely used and effective anti-cancer agents for treatment of various forms of cancer. Bleomycin has no myelotoxicity, but because of potential risk of pulmonary complications including interstitial pneumonitis and idiopathic interstitial pulmonary fibrosis, it has been limited in use. Some investigator has also suggested that cyclophosphamide can induce pulmonary toxicity like bleomycin. Recently, The combination chemotherapy including bleomycin and cyclophosphamide has been adopted effectively in some types of cancer. But there are no available literatures for synergistic effect of pulmonary toxicity in combination chemotherapy including these two drugs. We tried this study to observe synergism of pulmonary toxicity using these two drugs in rats. The animals were divided into five groups: group 1 received intra-peritoneal injection of saline, group 2-a received only bleomycin 0.1 mg [0.4 mg/kg] by intra-peritoneal injection twice a week, group 2-b received only bleomycin 0.5 mg [2 mg/kg] by intra-peritoneal injection twice a week, group 3-a received bleomycin 0.1 mg [0.4 mg/kg] twice a week +cyclophosphamide 5 mg [20 mg/kg] two weeks interval by intra-peritoneal injection, group 3-b received bleomycin 0.5 mg [2 mg/kg] twice a week + cyclophosphamide 5 mg[20 mg/kg] two weeks interval by intra-peritoneal injection. The animals were sacrificed at 2 and 4 weeks later. Lung tissues were obtained and observed by light microscope. The results are as follows: 1. The pathologic findings of group 1 were normal without change. 2. There was no difference between group 2-a and group 3-a at 2 weeks later, group 3-a, however, revealed more severe change in lung tissue at 4 weeks later compared with group 2-a. 3. In group 3-b there was more severe pulmonary injury compared with group 2-b at 2 and 4 weeks later. We conclude that the combined administration of bleomycin and cyclophosphamide induce more severe pulmonary toxic effect than bleomycin administration alone and the combination chemotherapy including these two drugs will be require special attention to selection of the dose of each drug.

Keywords