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The effect of ultrasound on the cytoxicity of adriamycin

Physics Division, Sutton, Surrey ^* Section of Pathology Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton, Surrey

The effect of continuous wave ultrasound exposures on the cytoxicity of adriamycin has been studied. It has been found that 2.6 MHz, 2.3 Wcm^–2 (spatial average) ultrasound can enhance the cell killing potential of adriamycin both in suspensions of single V79 Chinese hamster fibroblast cells and in spheroids formed from these cells. The ratio of the slopes of the survival curves for single cell suspensions is 1.5. For spheroids, the growth delay is increased by 1.3 days by simultaneous ultrasound exposure. Flow cytometric studies of the intracellular concentration of adriamycin following ultrasound exposure reveals that this is increased when compared with that measured when the cells are only exposed to adriamycin. Evidence is presented to suggest that this is a non-thermal effect of ultrasound.

Received for publication September 1, 1989. Revision received February 1, 1990.