The Action of Ferricyanide on Tumour Cells

Abstract

Cancer cells oxidize organic substances in the presence of oxygen and ferment sugar when oxygen is lacking; in these respects the metabolism of the cancer cell does not seem to differ from the metabolism of normal body cells. The disturbance in the metabolism of the cancer cell lies in its fermentation in the presence of oxygen, its aerobic glycolysis, which was discovered by Otto Warburg (1) fourteen years ago. In order to suppress the pathological metabolism of cancer cells and change their course to normal, we must therefore try to check the aerobic glycolysis. Four substances are known with which the glycolysis of cancer cells may be checked: fluoride (Dickens, 2), monoiodo-acetic acid (Lundsgaard, 3), glyceric aldehyde (Mendel, 4), and ferricyanide (Mendel, 5). Both the anaerobic and the aerobic glycolysis are checked to about the same extent by fluorides and monoiodo-acetic acid. If used in effective doses, however, these substances are rather toxic and have therefore been abandoned for therapeutic purposes. Glyceric aldehyde, on the other hand, is not toxic, even in large intravenous doses, but it has qualities which are detrimental to its therapeutic application. Injected intravenously it is rapidly destroyed by the blood plasma. This is particularly disadvantageous, as aerobic glycolysis is affected only by rather large quantities of glyceric aldehyde. There may, however, be a possibility of improving the results obtained with glyceric aldehyde alone by combining it with other therapeutic methods, as, for instance, by combination with x-rays or radium (Franks, 6).