Anti free radical action of calcium antagonists and H1 and H2 receptors antagonists in neoplastic disease.

The blood of the subjects suffering from Neoplastic Disease (ND) shows phenomena of membrane peroxidation due to the presence of Free Radicals (FRs), in a quantity much greater than the one observed in the blood of healthy subjects. This can be detected either by calculating the time necessary for the formation of "Heinz bodies" (Hbs), (p < 0.00001) after oxidative stress of the blood in vitro with acetylphenylidrazine (APH), or by calculating the methemoglobin (metHb) quantity that forms after the same treatment (P < 0.00001). The statistical analyses we carried out showed that metHb formation was not affected by age, sex, smoking habits, red blood cell number, Hb, Ht or tumor staging. In this study, by using equal parameters of investigation, we noted that the blood of the subjects with ND who were previously treated with calcium-antagonists drugs and with antagonists of H1 and H2 receptors, gave results completely superimposable on the results obtained from healthy subjects, implying that the treatment had avoided the increase of FRs. Therefore we concluded that calcium-antagonists and the antagonists of the H1 and H2 receptors behave as antioxidant substances, having decreased the FRs damaging activity on the cellular membranes, thus controlling, although to a limited degree, the pejorative evolution of the disease. It is also important to remember that investigations into the ND, even possible screenings, must take into account the above said data, submitting the subjects under investigation to a pharmacological wash out, particularly with those substances which, are considered to be scavengers of FRs. Some of these substances are investigated in this work.