[Adriamycin in chemotherapy of solid tumors]

From one to eight, 7 or more day spaced, three-day 0,5 mg/kg/day cycles of adriamycin (an anthracycline antiblastic very similar to daunomycin) were administered to 50 adults with various solid tumour forms. Toxic signs were constant and sometimes compelled abandonment. The main residual signs were leucopenia, alopecia and stomatitis. The drug also displayed a cardiotoxic effect, though this was less than observed with daunomycin. It is felt that the theoretical interest aroused in adriamycin as an inhibitor nucleic acid systhesis, together with its marked anti-neoplastic efficacy in the experimental animal, have been betrayed by this performance in the management of solid tumors.