A comparison of the in vitro Genotoxicity of Anticancer Drugs Melphalan and Mitoxantrone

Melphalan and Mitoxantrone are anthracycline antibiotics used in cancer therapy. This research was carried out to investigate in vitro genotoxic effects of the two (Melphalan and Mitoxantrone) anti-cancer drugs on human lymphocytes using Micronucleus Test. The effect induced by Melphalan was more pronounced than by Mitoxantrone. There was a significant increase in the induction of DNA damage in the cells treated with Melphalan. Our results indicate that 10 μM concentration of Melphalan induced formation of 1% of frequency of Micronucleated Lymphocytes (MNLs) while the same concentration of Mitoxantrone does not show any MNLs. The 70 μM concentration of Melphalan and Mitoxantrone both on an average induced 5.8 % and 3.7% frequency of MNLs respectively. We concluded that the Melphalan and Mitoxantrone are able to induce genotoxic effects in human lymphocytes in vitro in a dose-dependent manner, therefore, in normal lymphocytes much lesser genotoxicity of Mitoxantrone compared to Melphalan should be taken into account in planning chemotherapeutic strategies.