Solid Tumor Chemotherapy With Mitomycin C

MITOMYCIN C is an antibiotic derived from the fermentation filtrate ofStreptomyces caespitosus, a species ofStreptomycesisolated from a soil sample collected in Tokyo in 1955.1It has a broad spectrum of activity against gram positive and gram negative bacteria, rickettsiae, and certain viruses as well as a high degree of chemotherapeutic activity against numerous transplantable mouse and rat tumors.2The initial Japanese reports of human trials of mitomycin C indicated that it had demonstrable chemotherapeutic activity against chronic myelogenous leukemia, chorioepithelioma, reticulum cell sarcoma, seminomas, and some epithelial tumors.3Subsequent reports by American investigators using dosages similar to the Japanese investigators showed the drug to have limited value in leukemias and various sarcomas, but to have severe hematopoietic toxicity.4,5 Methods This report presents our results using mitomycin C at a somewhat lower dosage schedule in 24 patients with advanced malignant disease arising from solid