BACKGROUND: The selective unilateral administration of drugs into a single lung of a rat is difficult because of the small airway diameter. Therefore, a simple method for unilateral administration into rat lung is needed. METHODS: Rats were assigned to 1 of 2 groups according to the direction of the catheter used for drug administration. Anesthetized rats were intubated, and curved epidural catheters were rotated up to a maximum of 90degrees toward the left lung (group L) or right lung (group R). Bronchial catheters were then inserted via a tracheal tube and fixed. Methylene blue (0.3 ml) was injected via the epidural catheter. Additionally, to compare survival rates, rats were assigned to one of two groups according to the drug administration route. In group T, bleomycin hydrochloride (20 mg/kg) in 0.3 ml of phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) was administrated into the lung intratracheally via a tracheal tube. In group B, the same dose of bleomycin was administrated into the lung intrabronchially via a bronchial catheter, targeting the left lung. RESULTS: Gross examination revealed that targeted administration was 100% successful. Methylene blue was observed in the right lung of all rats in the R group and in the left lung of all rats in the L group. The survival rate was higher in group B than in group T. CONCLUSIONS: The intrabronchial method offers an advantage over tracheal administration as it decreases mortality and allows the administration of a drug unilaterally into a single lung or into a localized area without the need for double-lumen tubes or more invasive procedures.
Animals ; Bleomycin ; Catheters ; Drug Administration Routes ; Imidazoles ; Lung ; Methylene Blue ; Nitro Compounds ; Rats ; Survival Rate

Multiple trichoepithelioma is a benign adnexal neoplasm characterized by the presence of many small papules that appear predominantly on the face. Clinical improvement have been demonstrated after several treatments such as carbon dioxide laser, cryotherapy, dermabrasion, and argon laser. However, these destructive methods have various disadvantages. We report a case of multiple trichoepithelioma treated with an intralesional bleomycin injection. Fewer lesions without scars and cosmetic improvements were observed. Bleomycin is a cytotoxic antitumor antibiotic that can be injected intralesionally by transcutaneous administration and displays excellent results for treating malignancies including skin tumors. We believe that intralesional bleomycin injection is an effective treatment option for this condition, and an easy method to conduct at the outpatient clinic.
Administration, Cutaneous ; Ambulatory Care Facilities ; Argon ; Bleomycin ; Cicatrix ; Cosmetics ; Cryotherapy ; Dermabrasion ; Lasers, Gas ; Skin

Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is a novel cancer treatment in which electric pulses (EPs) inducing cell membrane pored (electroporation) are used as a means of delivering antitumor drugs to the cytoplasm of cancer cells. The minimal thresholds of electric field strength of in vitro tumor cell line and tumor tissue are 450-650 V/cm and 400-600 V/cm, respectively. The typical electrical requirement is 600-1300 V/cm, pulse width of 100 micros, 8 pulses, 1 Hz. More than 10 kinds of antitumor drugs have been applied to ECT, in which the most efficacious drug is Bleomycin, and then Cisplatin. Some exciting inhibitory effects on cells in vitro and on solid tumors in clinical trials have been noticed. The factors influencing ECT effects include the electric parameters, diameter of electrode, distribution of electric field lines, size of tumor, model of drugs injection and kinds of drugs. Some questions of ECT are still open, such as the dosages and kinds of drugs for clinical trials, model of drug injection, influence on normal tissues, therapeutic mechanism.
Antibiotics, Antineoplastic ; administration & dosage ; Antineoplastic Agents ; administration & dosage ; Bleomycin ; administration & dosage ; Cisplatin ; administration & dosage ; Electric Stimulation Therapy ; methods ; Electrochemistry ; Electroporation ; methods ; Humans ; Neoplasms ; therapy

Advanced Hodgkin's disease is usually treated with six or more cycles of combination chemotherapy. Spontaneous regression of the cancer is very rarely reported in patients with Hodgkin's disease. We present an unusual case of a patient with Hodgkin's disease who experienced complete remission with a single cycle of chemotherapy, followed by pneumonia. The case was a 36-year-old man diagnosed with stage IVB mixed cellularity Hodgkin's disease in November 2000. After treatment with one cycle of COPP-ABV (cyclophosphamide, vincristine, procarbazine, prednisone, doxorubicin, bleomycin, and vinblastine) chemotherapy without bleomycin, the patient developed interstitial pneumonia and was cared in the intensive care unit (ICU) for two months. Follow-up chest computerized tomography (CT), performed during the course of ICU care, revealed markedly improved mediastinal lymphomatous lesions. Furthermore, follow-up whole body CT and 18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography showed complete disappearance of the lymphomatous lesions. Four years later, the patient is well and without relapse. This report is followed by a short review of the literature on spontaneous regression of Hodgkin's disease. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report of spontaneous remission of Hodgkin's disease in Korea.
Adult ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols/*administration & dosage ; Bleomycin/*administration & dosage ; Cyclophosphamide/*administration & dosage ; Doxorubicin/*administration & dosage ; Hodgkin Disease/*complications/*drug therapy ; Humans ; Male ; Pneumonia/*complications ; Prednisone/*administration & dosage ; Procarbazine/*administration & dosage ; Remission, Spontaneous ; Vinblastine/*administration & dosage ; Vincristine/*administration & dosage

OBJECTIVETo investigate the therapeutic effect of combined injection of pingyangmycin (PYM) & dexame thasone (DXM) for the treatment of maxillofacial and cervical venous malformations.

METHODSFrom August 1995 to October 2008, 116 cases with maxillofacial and cervical venous malformations were retrospectively analyzed. The injection dilute was made with PYM 8 mg, DXM 10 mg and 2% lidocaine 2.0 ml (PYM 2 mg/ml). The PYM diluent 1.0-4.0 ml (including the PYM 2-8 mg) was injected into the tumor according to the patients age, tumor size and location. For children, PYM 2-4 mg was injected for one treatment. The needle should be inserted into tumor perpendicularly or from the edge of tumor. After withdrawing blood, the drug was injected into the tumor slowly. The injection could be repeated every 7-10 days. The clinical signs were recorded; ultrasonography and chest X-ray were performed to evaluate the therapeutic effect.

RESULTS1-5 treatments of injection were performed in the 116 patients. The tumor shrinked and disappeared after treatment with PYM 2-40 mg and DXM 5-50 mg. The patients were followed up for 3-5 years with no occurrence and complication.

CONCLUSIONSIt's safe, effective and practical to treat maxillofacial and cervical venous malformations by combined injection of PYM and DXM. The cosmetic appearance and function can be preserved at the most.

Adolescent ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; administration & dosage ; Bleomycin ; administration & dosage ; analogs & derivatives ; Child ; Dexamethasone ; administration & dosage ; Humans ; Injections ; Maxilla ; Neck ; Retrospective Studies ; Vascular Malformations ; drug therapy ; Veins ; abnormalities

OBJECTIVETo investigate the efficacy, adverse events and long-term survival of cyclophosphamide, vindesine, cytarabine, dexamethasone and bleomycin (COAD-B) regimen for relapsed and refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).

METHODSEighty six patients diagnosed with relapsed or refractory NHL were included in our study from January 2007 to January 2013. The chemotherapy regimen was COAD-B, the therapeutic efficacy was evaluated every 2 courses. Once the stable disease (SD) or progress of the disease (PD) achieved, the patients would switch to other second-line regimens.

RESULTSThe overall response rate (ORR) was 67.4%, median remission duration was 13 months (3-51 months); 1-,2- and 4-year overall survival (OS) rates were 75.4%, 56.8% and 40.0%, respectively; 1-, 2- and 4-year progression-free survival (PFS) rates were 50.3%, 39.4% and 27.5%, respectively. The main adverse reaction of patients was myelosuppression. The response to chemotherapy and long- term survival of the relapsed patients were significantly better than that of the refractory ones, and the difference had statistical significance.

CONCLUSIONCOAD-B could be the salvage regimen for relapsed and refractory NHL.

Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; therapeutic use ; Bleomycin ; administration & dosage ; Cyclophosphamide ; administration & dosage ; Cytarabine ; administration & dosage ; Dexamethasone ; administration & dosage ; Disease-Free Survival ; Humans ; Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin ; drug therapy ; Remission Induction ; Salvage Therapy ; Survival Rate ; Treatment Outcome ; Vindesine ; administration & dosage

Electrochemotherapy was instituted for sarcoma, and the tumor inhibitory ratio, curing ratio, vascular endothelial growth factor, microvessel density and mechanism were measured and analyzed. The results indicate that the curing ratio of electrochemotherapy for sarcoma is 84.6%. The present research provides experimental evidence for the security, mechanism and feasibility of electrochemotherapy in clinical practice.
Animals ; Antineoplastic Agents ; administration & dosage ; Bleomycin ; administration & dosage ; Drug Delivery Systems ; methods ; Electrochemotherapy ; methods ; Electroporation ; methods ; Mice ; Sarcoma 180 ; therapy ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A ; analysis

In this paper are analyzed the effect of electrochemotherapy and its mechanism. The favorable parameter of electric pulses (EP) was studied in vitro using the S-180 cells exposed to various EP. After the tumor model was copied, the tumor-bearing mice were randomly divided into four groups: control, chemotherapy, electrotherapy, and electrochemotherapy. The tumor inhibitory ratio, the cure ratio and the level of oxygen free radicals (OFR) were determined. The inhibitory ratio and cure ratio of electrochemotherapy group were significantly higher than those in the chemotherapy, electrotherapy and control groups (P < 0.05). The injury of OFR was decreased while the immunological competence was increased. The mechanism of electrochemotherapy may be related with the enhancement of cell membranepermeability, the depression of drug resistance, the improvement of immunological competence, and so on.
Animals ; Antineoplastic Agents ; administration & dosage ; Bleomycin ; administration & dosage ; Drug Delivery Systems ; methods ; Electric Stimulation Therapy ; methods ; Electrochemistry ; Electroporation ; methods ; Mice ; Random Allocation ; Sarcoma 180 ; therapy

OBJECTIVETo compare two methods of bleomycin administration for inducing lung fibrosis in mice.

METHODSBleomycin (5 mg/kg) was intratracheally instilled or by intratracheal administration of its aerosol (100 µl) in mice. Evans Blue instead of bleomycin was intratracheally administered in the two manners to observe the liquid distribution in the lungs. On Days 14 after bleomycin treatment, the mice were sacrificed and the lungs were removed en bloc to determine the lung coefficient and hydroxyproline concentration, and the histological changes and lung fibrosis were evaluated by HE and Masson's trichrome staining, respectively.

RESULTSEvans Blue intratracheal aerosol distribution in the lung lobes. Intratracheal administration of bleomycin and its aerosol produced no obvious changes in the lung coefficient (P=0.434), and resulted in similar total histopathological scores and fibrosis level in mice (P=0.244 and 0.686, respectively). Bleomycin instillation caused obvious lung injury and lung fibrotic foci with significantly different histological and fibrotic scores between the pulmonary lobes (P=0.016 and 0.038, respectively), while bleomycin aerosol inhalation resulted in similar histological and fibrotic scores in the pulmonary lobes (P=0.466 and 0.29, respectively). A higher level of hydroxyproline was observed in mice with bleomycin aerosol administration (P=0.020).

CONCLUSIONIntratracheal bleomycin instillation and bleomycin aerosol inhalation induce similar levels of fibrosis in the lungs of mice, but the latter causes more extensive and more evenly distributed fibrosis in the lungs.

Administration, Inhalation ; Aerosols ; Animals ; Bleomycin ; administration & dosage ; Disease Models, Animal ; Female ; Lung ; physiopathology ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Pulmonary Fibrosis ; chemically induced ; pathology

This study evaluated the effects of electric pulses combined with antitumor drugs on S180 tumor cells. It was found that the growth of S180 sarcoma was inhibited with a maximum inhibition ratio of 95.5% after the use of electric pulses in combination with the injection of bleomycin (BLM), and the blood vessels of tumor were obviously fewer than those of the untreated tumor in vivo. The mitochondria of S180 tumor cells were swollen after the use of electric pulses in combination with adriamycin. The results showed that electrochemotherapy has evident inhibitory effect on the growth of S180 sarcoma and the mechanism may involve the suppression of tumor angiogenesis and changes in the ultrastructures of tumor cells.
Animals ; Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic ; administration & dosage ; Bleomycin ; administration & dosage ; Combined Modality Therapy ; Electric Stimulation Therapy ; methods ; Electrochemistry ; Mice ; Neovascularization, Pathologic ; prevention & control ; Sarcoma 180 ; blood supply ; therapy