• R Liasko, T A Kabanos, S Karkabounas, M Malamas, A J Tasiopoulos, D Stefanou, P Collery, and A Evangelou.
• Laboratory of Exp. Physiology, Faculty of Medicine and Inorganic, University of Ioannina, Greece.
• Anticancer Res. 1998 Sep 1; 18 (5A): 3609-13.

BackgroundVanadium is a potent environmental and body metal, possessing remarkable antitumor and antidiabetic properties. Vanadium salts and complexes have been widely investigated for their anticarcinogenic properties in experimental carcinogenesis. In the present study the antitumor effects of a new vanadium complex with cysteine in relation to identical doses of vanadyl sulfate and cysteine, in tumor bearing rats are investigated.Materials And MethodsMale wistar rats were injected with benzo(alpha)pyrene and divided into four groups of 21 rats each. Control group was treated only with BaP. The first group(TR-1) was treated by vanadyl sulfate per os at daily doses of 0.5 mg of V/kg b.w per day. The second (TR-2) by cysteine at doses of 4.5 mg/kg b.w per day and the third group (TR-3), by the complex V(III)-cysteine at daily doses of V 0.5 mg/kg b.w (containing cysteine at concentrations of 4.5 mg/b.w). Treatment was started when tumors were developed (evidenced from a palbable mass at the site of Bap injection) and went on till death. Toxicological tests were performed in 27 rats divided into a control group and two test groups; T-1 administered with vanadyl sulfate at daily doses of 18.5 mg V/kg b.w and T-2 group with V(III)-cysteine complex at daily doses of 18.5 V/kg b.w, for 9 weeks. Mean survival time, death rate, tumor growth rate, the carcinogenic potency of BaP, and the anticarcinogenic potency in relation to histological findings in each treatment group were calculated in each group in order to evaluate the antitumor effects of the substances used.ResultsVanadyl sulfate, cysteine and V(III)-cysteine exerted antitumor effects on leiomyosarcoma bearing Wistar rats. However, V(III)-complex exerted much more potent effects than the other treatments, significantly prolonging mean survival time, retarding tumor growth rate and decreasing the carcinogenic potency of BaP in the TR-3 group, in comparison to the control and the TR-1 and TR-2 groups. Moreover V(III)-cysteine complex resulted in complete remission of 4 (19.7%) of the tumor bearing rats. Blood, urine, biochemical routine tests as well as autopsy did not reveal any toxic effects either of vanadyl sulafate or V(III)-cysteine complex.ConclusionsVanadyl sulfate, cysteine and V(III)-cysteine complex exerted antitumor effects in tumor bearing rats. The V(III)-cysteine complex, however, exerts much more potent effects, as evident from the results of the present study. These beneficial effects of the above complex, in combination with its low toxicity provide evidence suggest its possible application in the treatment of human malignant diseases.

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