Studies on the administration of quinacrine to tumor-bearing mice.

Lewis et al. (14, 15) reported the results of a survey of various derivatives of acridine as pos sible inhibitors of the growth of tumors in mice. Among the series of 70 acridine derivatives which they tested, sixteen 9-aminoacridine compounds were found to inhibit the growth of tumors to the extent that, after 14 days of treatment, they were th@— @ theaveragesizeoftumorsinuntreatedcon trol mice. Quinacrine1 was one of the sixteen most effective inhibitors in their series. The present paper is concerned with a more de tailed study of the effects of the administration of quinacrine to tumor-bearing mice. The following topics were investigated : (a) the effect of quina crine upon the gain in body weight of immature normal and tumor-bearing mice, (b) the effects of several concentrations of quinacrine upon the rates of growth of four different tumors in several strains of mice, (c) the effects on survival time and on the development of external necrosis, (d) the effect on the concentrations of nucleic acids in liver and tumors, and (e) a study of the distribu tion of quinacrine in various tissues and fluids of normal and of tumor-bearing mice.