ABSTRACT
Steroids are ineffective or enhance adenocarcinoma growth, whereas a number of organotins are known to inhibit, to some degree, tumor cell proliferation. A/KI inbred strain albino white mice, prone to mammary adenocarcinoma at 80% incidence in breeding females, were used as subjects. The in-house colony was established from a number of sibling cohorts supplied by the Northeast Ohio University College of Medicine. The tests conducted to date indicate that tin bonded to cholesterol or cholesterol derivative, such as cholic acid, provides considerable antitumor activity. Tin steroids administered orally on a continuous basis for 45 days show no toxicity at 10 and 100 ppm aqueous concentrations in the gross sense. The thymus synthesizes cholesterol and at least one cholesterol derivative; thus, it is believed that the hypothetical active tin steroid has a cholesterol nucleus. The unidentifiable segments of the spectra probably belong to that particular moiety and it could be hypothesized that it is the tin group.
