ABSTRACT
In the 1960's and 1970's information was slowly evolving that conventional cancer modalities were immunosuppressive. In addition, in animal tumor models anesthesia and/or a major surgical procedure were associated with either an increased induction rate of tumors or enhancement of the growth of established tumors. This chapter summarizes the findings using the drug thiopental as well as major surgical procedures in normal mice and the murine tumor models. If tumor cells were cultured with varying concentrations of thiopental, no change was observed in in vitro growth kinetics of the tumor cells. Thus it seemed unlikely that the effect of thiopental was a direct one on the tumor cell. In addition, suppressor cells from thiopental treated animals might be responsible for enhancement of the growth of primary tumor, activation of dormant tumor cells and increased growth rate of artificial pulmonary metastases. In mice given halothane anesthesia alone no increase in artifical metastases was observed.
