[Metronidazole: basic experimental results and clinical prospects]

The paper is concerned with the effect of metronidazole, one of the radiosensitizers of hypoxic cells. Analysis of the literature data has shown that at present metronidazole can be used to enhance the sensitivity of hypoxic cells to irradiation, chemotherapeutic drugs and as a cytotoxic agent. These effects are determined by the radiation-chemical mechanism, the toxic effect of recovery products, a decrease in the content of nonprotein sulfhydryl compounds, the suppression of cell regeneration resulting from lethal injuries. The authors' experimental results obtained in 4 murine and human tumors growing in diffusion chambers have shown that the level of radiosensitization does not depend on tumor growth rate and proliferative activity, that it depends on the type of tumors and their individual features and increases with single irradiation as compared to fractional. The degree of chemosensitization also depends, to a great extent, on a tumor type, schemes of drug administration and the type of drugs.