Single and sequential combination intravesical chemotherapy of murine bladder cancer

We investigated the effectiveness of intravesically administered drugs on the tumor incidence and tumor size in a FANFT-induced animal model for bladder cancer. In the first experiment 106 C3H/He mice were divided into a control and three treatment groups. Therapy consisted of either cis-diamminedichloroplatinum (II) (DDP), mitomycin C, or thio-tepa. There was a reduction in the tumor incidence in all treated groups; this was statistically significant for those receiving mitomycin C (p less than 0.04) and DDP (p less than 0.001). No significant difference in the mean or median tumor weight (an index of tumor volume) between the treated and control groups was found. In a second experiment intravesical combination chemotherapy was compared to single-agent therapy. Animals received either doxorubicin hydrochloride (Adriamycin), mitomycin C, thio-tepa, mitomycin C + doxorubicin, or mitomycin C + thio-tepa. Although there was no significant difference in tumor incidence among the groups with the exception of mice receiving thio-tepa, animals receiving sequential combination chemotherapy had lower mean and median bladder weights suggesting an improved therapeutic effect.