Porfiromycin in the management of epidermoid and transitional cell cancer: a phase II study

Porifiromycin has been tested in many groups of patients over the past several years (1-7). This report is an analysis of greater than 100 patients with epidermoid and urinary tract transitional cell carcinomas treated with this agent. A review of these data and the available literature on this agent shows that porfiromycin offers definite usefulness in disseminated squamous cell carcinomas of the cervix, and definite but lesser effectiveness in epidermoid carcinomas of the lung, the head and neck region, and other sites. Responsiveness was also demonstrated in transitional cell carcinomas of the urinary tract. Toxicity was tolerable and consisted primarily of myelosuppression and local skin necrosis in sites where extravasation had occurred.