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The Tumor-inhibitory Activity of Diaryl- and Triarylmethane Dyes

I. The Ehrlich Ascites Mouse Tumor^*

(The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology, Philadelphia 4, Pa., and The Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, Howard University, Washington, D.C.)

The tumor-inhibitory activity of 235 diaryl- and triarylmethane dyes listed under 55 different Color Index numbers was tested by oral administration to 2,016 mice bearing intraperitoneal growths of Ehrlich ascites mouse tumor.

The tumor-inhibitory activity of the dyes was measured in three ways: prolongation of life of the tumor-bearing mice 2–6 times that of the control (longevity), number of treated mice dying without tumor 2–10 days after the untreated controls died from tumor (resistance), and the number of treated mice that survived 20–60 or more days and still remained free from tumor (survivors).

All 300 mice bearing ascites tumors that were left untreated to serve as controls in the various experiments died from the tumor within an average of 11.4 days; the majority died on the ninth or tenth day. No regression of tumor growth took place in the untreated controls.

The acid dyes were not toxic; mice treated with the majority of the acid dyes lived longer than the untreated controls. A number of the basic dyes proved to be toxic; many of the treated mice died without tumor, and those which survived lost weight.

Many of the basic diaryl- and triarylmethane dyes retarded the growth of the Ehrlich ascites tumor, but only one of them, Ethyl Violet (C.I. No. 682), stained the ascites cells in vivo.

The results indicate that the dyes with the greatest antitumor activity were found among the seventeen Color Index numbers (fifteen basic and two acid dyes) which caused all three types of tumor inhibition in the treated mice.

Thirty-three of the individual dye samples listed under sixteen of the different Color Index numbers caused one or another form of tumor inhibition in every one of the 333 treated mice. Twenty-six of these dyes (25 basic and one acid) brought about tumor inhibition of all three types. The other seven dyes (acid) prolonged life of the tumor-bearing mice but did not prevent tumor growth.

^* Aided in part by a research grant from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health, Public Health Service, Bethesda, Md.

Received 8/18/52.