ABSTRACT
Oxygen free radicals and similar species have been implicated in various diseases (1-4), as well as carcinogenesis (5-9) and aging (10-12). Oxygen radicals are highly cytotoxic, and we have demonstrated the importance of radical-induced lipid peroxidation as a mechanism of that toxicity in various experimental animal models (13-16). Oxygen radicals give rise to lipid peroxidation, producing a variety of pathologies. As a result, free radical research has focused on disease treatment with radical scavengers. However, by utilizing these potent actions effectively, that is, by producing large quantities of active oxygen species at the site of a cancer, an antitumor effect might be expected. Today, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and photochemical reactions are well known as cancer treatments that make use of the cytotoxicity of reactive oxygen species and free radicals (17, 18). We have focused our experimental studies on rabbit VX2 carcinoma and rat AH 109A carcinoma treated with free-radical reactions.
