Clinical Trial of Radiotherapy After Intravenous Injection of Acridine Orange for Patients with Cancer.

Abstract

We previously found that low-dose X-ray treatment after systemic administration of acridine orange (AO), which is known to have a low toxicity in animals, inhibited tumor growth in experimental studies using mouse osteosarcoma. In this pilot study, we planned to verify the toxicity of intravenous injection of low-dose AO in humans and investigate the anticancer effect of radiation after systemic AO administration (iAOR) for human cancer. Eight patients with terminal cancer were treated with iAOR. None of the patients exhibited an adverse effect from AO injection. Three out of the five patients who received a full course of iAOR exhibited clinical or image-based responses, whereas two patients did not. The systemic administration of AO was confirmed not to be toxic in humans, and iAOR was suggested to be potentially effective against radioresistant cancer.