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Drugs Five Years Later
Procarbazine
Abstract
Since its approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1969 procarbazine has had an established role as a single agent in combination chemotherapy of Hodgkin's disease. The drug offers some benefits for patients with lymphomas of other than Hodgkin's type and small and large cell carcinomas of lung, but there has been no documented enlargement of the role of procarbazine beyond these applications during the past 5 years. Toxicities are hematologic and neurologic, and there are also potential adverse effects in multiple drug interactions and in possible carcinogenesis. Procarbazine should therefore be used only against malignant disease by clinicians experienced in its use and cognizant of potential adverse effects.
Article and Author Information
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▸From the Cancer Research Institute and Department of Medicine School of Medicine, University of California San Francisco Medical Center, San Francisco, California.
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▸Requests for reprints should be addressed to Samuel D. Spivack, M.D., Cancer Research Institute, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California San Francisco Medical Center, San Francisco, CA 94143.
