Single-dose quinacrine (atabrine) and thoracostomy in the control of pleural effusions in patients with neoplastic diseases

Abstract

Thirty‐nine patients with various malignant tumors developed intractable malignant effusions. The response rate in 12 patients given intracavitary quinacrine in small daily doses was 67%. Quinacrine was administered as a single dose through a thoracostomy tube in 27 patients. The response rate was 70%. There was no significant difference in useful response observed whether lung metastases were demonstrated or not. Signs and symptoms of quinacrine toxicity were observed in both patient groups with more of the disturbing and serious toxicity noted in the group receiving a single dose.

Quinacrine inhibits GSTA1 activity and induces apoptosis through G1/S arrest and generation of ROS in human non-small cell lung cancer cell lines

“…There have been few reports of uncovering the anticancerous potential of this molecule (QC) on breast, head and neck cancer, gastric and colon cancer cell lines [12][13][14][15][16]. Most of the reported studies have explored and elucidated the anti-cancer activity of QC through suppressing NF-κB and activating p53 signaling pathway which leads to apoptosis.…”

Chemical pleurodesis in malignant pleural effusions: a randomised prospective study of mepacrine versus bleomycin.

“…two months (0-7) in the mepacrine group and 3-5 months (0-22) in the bleomycin group (NS). The respective median survival times from diagnosis was six months (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16) and seven months (2-23), respectively (NS). Only six patients were alive 12 months after the diagnosis.…”

Enantioseparation with Capillary Electrophoresis (CE) as Evidence of Chirality Retention during Kolbe Electrolysis of Amino Acids

“…It demonstrated a similar growth inhibition pattern in cancer cells in both in vitro and in vivo models [32]. A few clinical studies on QC for the treatment of malignant pleural effusions were conducted on smaller subsets of patients (<100) over the next two decades [14,[33][34][35]. QC was reported to be a better alternative to bleomycin in one of the studies owing to its better response and fewer side effects displayed by the patients enrolled in the study.…”