Cyclophosphamide in the Adrenalectomized Animal

IN RECENT years there has been an increasing use of chemotherapeutic agents in the treatment of various forms of cancer. The hormonal ablation by operative means has steadily gained a place in the therapy of patients strickened with cancer. That of patients stricken with cancer. That these areas of therapy should meet was inevitable. It has been previously established that caution must be taken when administering a chemotherapeutic agent to an adrenalectomized animal. This is true even when that animal is in good physiological balance with maintenance doses of corticosteroids. The evidence that appears to point toward death, from the chemotherapeutic agents, seems to be one of adrenal insufficiency. If this is true for one cytotoxic agent, will it also be true for other cytotoxic agents? This has been studied previously with 5-fluorouracil and reported.^3-4 The present study is with a cyclophosphamide ester of nitrogen mustard.

Material and Methods