Study on clinical application of hypoxic radiosensitizer metronidazole

The side effect of massive oral administration of Metronidazole were evaluated in 32 patients with uterine cervix cancer who underwent radiotherapy. In the group that 6 g/m2 of Metronidazole was administrated transient minor liver dysfunction, moderate nausea and vomiting were observed in all patients. However liver dysfunction was very few in the group with dose of 3 g/m2. The peak concentration of Metronidazole in the blood with 265 - 270 μg/ml was obtained at two to three hours after administration in cases with dose of 3 g/m2. Therefore, single or twice administration with dose of 3 g/m2 was considered to be appropriate for high dose intracavitary radiotherapy such as by RALSTRON with single dose of 500 or 1,000 rads. (author)