Antitumor activity of idarubicin-monoclonal antibody conjugates in a disseminated thymic lymphoma model.

Abstract

Many of the experimental approaches used in the search for new targeted drug delivery systems ignore the disseminated nature of metastatic disease; the development of more relevant tumor models is therefore a priority. A reproducible and tumor-specific model has been generated by inoculating (C57BL/6 x BALB/c) F1 (Ly-2.2+) mice i.v. with the Ly-2.1+ murine ITT(1) 75NS E3 thymic lymphoma (E3). At a dose of 2 x 10(6) cells, E3 tumors grew in a disseminated fashion, arising initially and predominantly in the lung and kidney, and later and less often in the thymus, spleen, and other tissues. In addition, histopathological examination and flow cytometry of blood did not detect E3 tumor cells in m..