[Antineoplastic activity of the anthracycline antibiotic violamycin BI in mice and rats using experimental metastases...

The report describes the antineoplastic activity of violamycin BI on three rodent tumour systems. The test systems are two syngeneic mouse tumours: a benzo(a)pyrene induced sarcoma and a spontaneously originated mammary carcinoma of the inbred strain XVII/Berlin. Both tumours grow in ascitic form and were weekly passaged by i.p. administrations. A third system is a dimethylhydrazine induced rectum carcinoma of the Wistar rat. This rat tumour represents a slowly growing system transplanted by s.c. administrations of tumour fragments. The principle of the screening consists of the evaluation of metastatic parameters, e.g. weight, number and growth rate of metastases, experimentally induced by i.v. administrations of tumour cell suspensions. Under the given experimental conditions violamycin BI represents an antineoplastic antibiotikum with a good effectivity which is superior to the effectivity of the reference antibiotic daunorubicin.