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Regression of Human Metastatic Mammary Cancer Induced by 3-Methylcholanthrene^*

( Ben May Laboratory for Cancer Research, University of Chicago, Chicago 37, Ill.)

3-Methylcholanthrene was administered intramuscularly for 22–102 days to six women with metastatic mammary cancer; five of these patients had been treated earlier with adrenalectomy-oophorectomy. The compound had no beneficial effect in one case. In five cases, there was subjective and objective evidence of inhibition of the malignant process, and in one woman the recession was of major magnitude and had clinical therapeutic significance. The regression of metastatic human mammary cancer induced by 3-methylcholanthrene was remarkable, since the responding neoplasms were not dependent on hormones but were of undifferentiated types which have been hitherto refractory to inhibitory influences.

In all the patients there were temporary decreases in the levels of circulating hemoglobin and serum proteins during the administration of 3-methylcholanthrene. These proteins increased in amount after the injections of the polycyclic hydrocarbon were discontinued.

It must be emphasized that the administration of 3-methylcholanthrene to man is potentially dangerous, since the compound may give rise to new neoplasms; but a carcinogenic effect was not observed in the patients in the brief period of 9 months.

^* This study was aided by grants from the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research, the American Cancer Society, Inc., the Illinois Division of the American Cancer Society, the United States Public Health Service, and the Damon Runyon Memorial Fund for Cancer Research. We are grateful to Professor Eleanor M. Humphreys for interpretation of pathology.

Received 7/ 2/57.