Daunomycin, an antitumor antibiotic, in the treatment of neoplastic disease.Clinical evaluation with special reference to childhood leukemia

Abstract

Daunomycin is a new antibiotic in the anthracycline group obtained from Streptomyces peucetius. It consists of a pigmented aglycone (daunomycinone) in glycoside linkage with an amino sugar (daunosamine). Differences in the biological effects of daunomycin, which reacts with DNA, and actinomycin D which complexes with DNA in a different manner to inhibit RNA production, are discussed. The toxic effects of daunomycin are a severe local reaction if the drug extravasates, bone marrow depression resulting in leucopenia, anemia, thrombocytopenia and bleeding, fever, oral ulcers and alopecia. In patients receiving maintenance doses of daunomycin the development of tachypnea, tachycardia pulmonary insufficiency, heart failure and hypotension possibly is associated with daunomycin but the evidence is unclear. Sixty per cent of children with leukemia obtained brief complete or partial hematological remissions from a single course of daunomycin. The remission could be prolonged by maintenance therapy. Daunomycin is temporarily effective in some cases of neuroblastoma, reticulum cell sarcoma and rhabdomyosarcoma.

Expert Consensus for Multimodality Imaging Evaluation of Adult Patients during and after Cancer Therapy: A Report from the American Society of Echocardiography and the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging

“…Detection of sub-clinical left ventricular dysfunction using imaging 1. LVEF as a tool to detect sub-clinical LV dysfunction Although the decrease in LVEF during treatment has been associated with symptomatic HF, 31,34,35 the ability of serial LVEF assessment during and after treatment to identify CTRCD and prevent subsequent HF remains controversial.…”

“…Radionuclide approaches for monitoring chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity 1. MUGA Measurement of LV function using either first-pass or equilibrium radionuclide angiography (also known as MUGA) was first used in the late 1970s to identify patients receiving anthracyclines who had declines in LVEF before the development of clinical HF symptoms.…”

Spectroscopic studies of anthracyclines: Structural characterization and in vitro tracking

“…The first anthracycline isolated was daunorubicin (also called daunomycin), obtained from a bacterial strain of Streptomyces peucetius [2,3]. Another anthracycline also widely used in oncology is doxorubicin (Adriamycin ® ) [4].…”

Role of the sympathetic nervous system in daunomycin‐induced arrhythmia in the monkey

“…During the course of therapy serious alterations were observed in both the e.c.g. and cardiac function (Tan et al, 1967 ;Malpas & Scott, 1969 ;Marmont et al, 1969). Experimentally, acute cardiac toxicity was demonstrated in the Syrian golden hamster (Herman et al, 1969) and confirmed in the rhesus monkey (Herman & Vick, 1970).…”