Studies in a tumor spectrum. VIII. The effect of mitomycin C on the growth of a variety of mouse, rat, and hamster tumors.

Since the original work of Fleming (1), many antibiotics have been isolated from culture filtrates of soil microorganisms. A few of the antibiotics have demonstrated anti-tumor effects in experimental animals (9, 25). Recently, Hata and his associates (8, 12), Sakai and Teranaka (11), and Teranaka (29) reported that mitomycin C, a new antibiotic isolated from Streptomyces caespitosus (4), has strong anti-tumor action on Yoshida sarcoma and Walker carcinosarcoma, both solid and ascitic forms, and on Ehrlich ascites carcinoma. Anti-tumor activity of mitomycin C has been confirmed by Reilly (10), Jones (7), and Sugiura and Stock (23). Mitomycin C has been reported to show promising effects against various types of human cancer (13-15, 27). This report consists of observations on the effect of mitomycin C on the growth of sixteen solid tumors of the mouse, six solid tumors of the rat, three hamster tumors, two ascites tumors of the mouse, and one mouse solid leukemia and one mouse virus leukemia.