[Polyamines and their significance for control of cancer chemotherapy (author's transl)].

Determination of polyamines (putrescine, spermidine) can be useful for evaluation of treatment efficacy. The amount of putrescine and spermidine were estimated for 10 patients (breast carcinoma; stage IV; T0--4 N0--3 M1) prior to, during and after different combination chemotherapy (carminomycin-dibromodulcitol; cyclophosphamide-methotrexate-5-fluorouracil). Hydrolysis with hydrochloric acid showed best results. Automated ion exchange chromatography is a sensitive and reproducible method. 6 out of 10 patients did not show both clinical changes and changes in polyamine content comparable to values prior to combination chemotherapy. One example demonstrated both clinical progression and an increase of polyamine content. A correlation between decrease of putrescine and spermidine level and clinical remission were found in 3 out of 10 patients. These results support the usefulness of polyamine determinations to evaluate cancer chemotherapy.