Sensitizers as an adjunct in the treatment of bladder cancer

For the past 25 years, there have been repeated efforts at improving the effectiveness of radiation therapy by combining it with various sensitizing agents. The problem has not been that these agents did not work, but rather that to be effective, they were associated with unacceptable side effects. Since certain chemotherapeutic agents are radiomimetic, and are administered over a more prolonged time period than radiation therapy, there is reason to believe that their effectiveness could be improved without undue toxicity by the addition of sensitizers. In this paper, we will review the mechanism of action of sensitizers and show that, against the MBT-2 mouse bladder tumor, a number of sensitizing agents increased the antitumor activity of cyclophosphamide.