Dacarbazine, an antineoplastic chemotherapy drug used in the treatment of various cancers, among them malignant melanoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, sarcoma, and islet cell carcinoma of the pancreas. Dacarbazine is also a member of the class of alkylating agents, which destroy cancer cells by adding an alkyl group (CnH2n+1) to its DNA.[1] The alkyl group is attached to the guanine base of DNA, at the number 7 nitrogen atom of the purine ring.Cancer cells are more sensitive to DNA damage than normal cells, because its proliferate faster and with less error-correcting than healthy cells, but alkylating antineoplastic agent are also toxic to normal cells (cytotoxic), leading to damage, in particular in cells that divide frequently, as those in the gastrointestinal tract, bone marrow, testicles and ovaries.[2]
Dacarbazine is commonly used as a single agent in the treatment of metastatic melanoma in middle of 2006, and as part of the ABVD chemotherapy regimen to treat Hodgkin lymphoma, and in the MAID regimen for sarcoma.Currently, Dacarbazine combined with Oblimersen for the treatment of malignant melanoma in clinical trials.[3]Dacarbazine is normally administered by injection (a shot) or intravenous infusion (IV) under the immediate supervision of a doctor or nurse.Now in phase III about Melanoma Recurrent 2015 March.
References:1. "Alkylating Agents". US National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2 August 2014.
2. Wiedemann GJ. et al. "Ifosfamide, carboplatin and etoposide (ICE) combined with 41.8 degrees C whole body hyperthermia in patients with refractory sarcoma". European Journal of Cancer 1996,32A (5): 888–92.
3. MedLine, U.S. National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine.
4. CClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:NCT02288897.