Increased survival of cancer-bearing mice treated with inhibitors of prostaglandin synthesis alone or with chemotherapy

In mice with a transplantable mammary carcinoma, treatment with the prostaglandin-synthesis inhibitors flurbiprofen or indomethacin produced various beneficial effects. Survival time after excision of the transplanted tumour was increase, particularly when the drugs were given with the chemotherapeutic agents methrotrexate and melphalan, and there were more disease-free survivors. The combined treatment with flurbiprofen also gave less tumour recurrence at the excision site. Flurbiprofen did not seem to alter the bioavailability of the chemotherapeutic agents.