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Milestones of the Russian antitumor chemotherapy development inseparably associated with the names of N.N. Blokhin, L.F. Larionov and V.I. Astrakhan are reviewed. Since the early 50s of the last century, more than 7,000 generic and synthetic compounds have been studied by the three generations of chemotherapy researchers. 17 antitumor drugs have been developed and passed for clinical trials, 11 of them have been or still are being used in clinic.

A synthesized analog of myelopeptide HP-2-->M[symbol: see text]-2 (Leu-Val-Val-Tyr-Pro-Trp) caused a significant (60-80%) and prolonged inhibition of s.c. grafted tumors P388, Ca-755, B-16 and sarcoma 180 in isogenic mice but did not affect the growth of tumor B-16 in nude mice. Nor did it influence proliferative activity or viability of cultured human tumor cells. The best results were obtained with s.c. injections of 0.5-2 mg/kg HP-2-->M[symbol: see text]-2, twice or trice a day, at 96 hr intervals. No symptoms of severe poisoning were registered at doses of HP-2-->M[symbol: see text]-2 100 times the therapeutic one. A pharmacokinetic study in mice revealed prolonged circulation of HP-2-->M[symbol: see text]-2 in blood and a high affinity for the bone marrow (t 1/2 (130.1 hr and 431.6 hr, respectively). HP-2-->M[symbol: see text]-2 restored in vitro the ascites P388-suppressed cytotoxicity of murine T-lymphocytes. HP-2-->M[symbol: see text]-2 is regarded as a candidate for clinical studies of its potential of immunocorrection in cancer patients suffering T-lymphocyte immunity disturbances.