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Influence of High-Pressure Oxygen and Chemotherapy on the AMel 4 Hamster Melanoma¹

Department of Surgery, State University of New York, Upstate Medical Center, and the Surgical Service, Veterans Administration Hospital, Syracuse, New York

The effect of hyperbaric oxygen (HPO) on tumor growth and a possible synergism with chemotherapeutic agents (mechlorethamine, amethopterin, and cyclophosphamide) were tested with the use of the AMel 4 hamster melanoma.

HPO alone prolonged survival (P < 0.001), but neither survival nor size of the primary tumor was modified by the addition of chemotherapy beyond that observed when these drugs were given alone. Hence the combined effects seem additive and not truly synergistic. Although weight loss was significantly greater in the HPO-treated animals, diet-restricted controls that lost more weight than the HPO groups had no increase in survival. Striking differences were evident in the gross and histologic appearance of pulmonary metastases, the extent of tumor being far less in the HPO-treated groups.

The experimental results indicate that HPO delays the death of animals having this tumor and suggest that this prolongation of survival is particularly a function of restraint of pulmonary metastases. HPO did not potentiate the effect of chemotherapy by the agents tested.

¹ Supported in part by USPHS Grant No. HE-06052 from the NIH.

² Markle Scholar in Academic Medicine.

Received 2/17/65. Revised 9/ 3/65.