Failure of short-term treatment with flurbiprofen to enhance the therapeutic effect of cyclophosphamide against rodent sarcomas and a leukaemia.

Animals bearing metastatic fibrosarcomas were treated with cyclophosphamide (CY) alone or in combination with flurbiprofen (FP), an inhibitor of prostaglandin synthesis. FP did not affect local growth of fibrosarcomas, and the incidence of distant metastases after resection of the "primary" implants was comparable in treated and control groups. Treatment with CY retarded growth of the fibrosarcomas and reduced the proportion of animals which succumbed to metastases, but this was not altered significantly by additional treatment with FP. FP did not affect the survival of rats bearing a lymphoid leukaemia. The lifespan of animals treated with CY was increased significantly, but the concomitant administration of FP did not enhance this effect.