the invention is used in connection with treating a cancer in a host , particularly those types of cancers which are derived from epithelial cells such as breast cancer , colon cancer , stomach cancer , lung cancer , etc . of particular concern is the invasion and spread of cancer cells which is the primary mechanism of death from such diseases . it has been shown that the activation of plasminogen to plasmin by the specific activating enzyme urokinase plasminogen activator ( upa ) begins a process which allows cancerous cells to not only invade local sites , but also to enter the circulatory system and migrate to distant sites . inhibition of upa therefore suppresses the ability of the cancer cell to invade and spread . applicants have initiated several studies of amiloride usage for the suppression of breast cancer in rats . further , applicants have compared amiloride to a synthetic inhibitor of upa , and did a study of the effects of amiloride on three separate cell lines of human breast cancer . the results of these efforts are set forth in fig1 - 4 . in fig1 the results of studies involving three types of human breast cancer cells : mda - mb - 231 , shown in full lines ; mda - mb - 436 , shown in dot dash lines ; and mcf7 , shown in dash dot dot lines , are provided . a first study , represented by fig1 shows cell proliferation as measured by absorbance rates . as the graph shows , each of the three types of human breast cancer cells exhibit similar cell proliferation behavior . with respect to fig2 the invasive capacity of the three types of cancer cells was studied using invasion chambers . as is shown , the invasive capacities of the cancer cell lines are very dissimilar . based on these results , it was concluded that cell proliferation and invasive capacity of human breast cancer cells are separate , non - correlated processes . in fig3 the effect of amiloride on the invasive capacity of two types of cancer cells , mda - mb - 231 and mda - mb - 436 , as compared to respective controls ( 100 %) are shown at dosage levels of from 10 μm to 800 μm . increasing dosage concentrations of amiloride produced obvious effects on the invasion levels measured . cell viabilities did not vary with the addition of amiloride to the culture medium , even at the highest concentrations . with reference to fig4 a chart showing the effect of the dosage of amiloride on the metastasis of cancer cells in vivo is provided . in this study , matb 13762 rat mammary cancer cells were maintained in culture with mccoy &# 39 ; s 5a ( 90 %) fetal bovine serum ( 10 %) and penicillin - streptomycin 1 %. fresh cultures were brought up from frozen stock and those cells maintained in culture only briefly prior to use in this study . matb cells were centrifuged and counted for viability with trypan blue stain on a hemacytometer . each of the cell populations used for inoculation were found to be 90 % viable or better . two parallel experiments , identical in design but differing in dosage levels , employing 40 fisher 344 rats each were carried out in the following fashion . following a two week quarantine and maintenance on standard purina rat chow and filtered water , each rat was inoculated with a cell suspension of 10 5 matb rat mammary cancer cells via direct injection of the jugular venous system . parallel sets of three groups of ten rats each were administered amiloride initiated in different time sequences and at dosage schedules of 0 . 3 mg / kg / day and 10 mg / kg / day respectively . all experimental rats received amiloride in drinking water offered in 50 cc graduated cylinders permitting daily measurement of fluid intake . the control group received filtered water containing no amiloride . group 1 received amiloride commencing on the day of inoculation and continuing to the 10 th day following inoculation . group 2 received amiloride beginning 7 days prior to inoculation and continuing to the 10 th post inoculation day . group 3 received amiloride beginning at the 7 th post inoculation day in the low dose study and on the 3 rd post inoculation day in the high dose study . the studies were concluded at the 10 th day following the amiloride treatment . the middle lobe of the right lung was harvested from each rat and preserved in formalin . two sagittal sections from each lobe were prepared for microscopic examination . the numbers of metastatic nodules were counted and recorded . the recorded numbers are expressed as the percentage of controls as shown in fig4 . each group in both dosage categories showed reduced numbers of metastases as a result of the administration of amiloride , reflecting statistical significance in all groups at the higher dose levels and in group 2 at the lower dosage . pulmonary metastases in group 1 were 21 % of control ( p & lt ; 0 . 03 ) at the high dose of amiloride . the most consistent effect was noted when amiloride was administered both pre - and post - tumor cell inoculation , ( group 2 ), with 63 % ( p & lt ; 0 . 05 ) and 36 % ( p & lt ; 0 . 03 ) of control in the low and high dose range respectively . the number of metastases was reduced significantly to 26 % ( p & lt ; 0 . 04 ) in group 3 when amiloride was instituted at the high dose level 3 days following inoculation . however , when low dose amiloride was begun after a 7 day interval , the metastatic involvement had reached confluence of numbers of adjacent metastatic colonies . consequently a quantitative number of metastases was not obtainable . the overall results verified that induced metastases can be reduced significantly in the model employed by the administration of amiloride . the degree of inhibition is dependent of the dosage level employed and the timing of amiloride administration . the figures show that amiloride does suppress spread of breast cancer cells in fisher rats and in the invasion chamber studies on human breast cancer cells and that these effects are dose dependent . in addition , a strong correlation has been shown with the level of invasiveness of a given cancer cell type and the level of upa produced . amiloride has been shown to produce significant suppression of the invasion and spread of mammary cancer cells in both the in vivo rat model and in the in vitro testing of human cells . these observations demonstrate a means of significant control of the malignant process when caused by those cancer cell types dependent on the plasminogen / plasmin system for initiation of the invasive cascade . further , it has been shown that the mechanisms that permit invasion and spread of cancer cells in the rat are the same as those in man , and that these mechanisms are inhibited on a dose related basis by amiloride . amiloride is a drug already in use for the treatment of hypertension in man , and is well tolerated for that purpose . amiloride , unlike other available means of treating cancer in man , does not depend on a toxic effect on human cells in order to be effective . rather , amiloride attacks the migratory capability of cells and therefore has no direct toxic effect on normal cells , apart from the manifestations of potassium accumulation . the propensity of amiloride to cause potassium accumulation can be counteracted by the addition of hydrochlorothiazide . additional studies by the applicants attempt to determine whether the addition of hydrochlorothiazide ( hcz ) to the administration of amiloride to fisher rats alters the suppression of pulmonary metastases produced by iv inoculation of matb cancer cells . fisher 344 female rats were inoculated with 10 5 matb cells via the internal jugular venous system . drugs were administered via the drinking water with a daily log of the amount ingested . the experimental design consisted of four groups of ten animals each , 1 ) filtered water controls , 2 ) amiloride alone , 3 ) hydrochlorothiazide alone , 4 ) combined amiloride and hydrochlorothiazide . two dosage schedules were employed , 0 . 3 mg / kg and 3 mg / kg amiloride , 3 and 15 mg / kg hydrochlorothiazide given singly or combined at low and high dosages of amiloride , respectively . in addition , one full set of animals ( group a ) received each drug schedule for ten days post inoculation and a second set ( group b ) for 17 days post inoculation . at termination , the lungs were harvested and sectioned for microscopic examination . metastatic implants were counted by two blinded observers and submitted for statistical analysis . blood was drawn for serum potassium and amiloride levels on days 3 , 7 , 10 , 14 and 17 . the results are given below in table 1 . at the dosage levels employed in this study there was no significant difference expected in metastases resulting from amiloride alone . significant suppression of metastases were found by low dose hydrochlorothiazide as compared to controls . highly significant suppression of metastases resulted from the combination of amiloride and hydrochlorothiazide when administered together . the combination of the primary agent , amiloride , with a secondary agent , such as hydrochlorothiazide , has been shown to produce unexpected results concerning the suppression of metastases . it is believed that other secondary suppressing agents will work in combination with the amiloride to enhance the suppressive effect . the inhibition of upa by amiloride has been shown to effectively suppress , but not eliminate , the ability of the cancer cell to invade and spread . therefore , applicants have targeted a separate step in the enzymatic cascade through use of a secondary agent . a further study by applicants focused on the action of amiloride , which is a upa inhibitor , in combination with batimistat , which is a metalloprotease inhibitor . again , hydrochlorothiazide , which promotes the excretion of potassium , was studied in combination with the amiloride . the study involved seventy rats in all divided into groups of ten . each rat was inoculated with intravenous rat breast cancer cells . ten rats received no inhibitors , ten received amiloride alone , ten received amiloride and hydrochlorothiazide , ten received batimistat , ten received amiloride and batimistat in combination , ten received batimistat and saline and ten received water and saline . the gross appearance of the animal lungs , which are the target organs for the appearance of tumors , indicates that the combined amiloride and batimistat group had the least detectable level of tumor . in a further study , three separate cell lines of human breast cancer cells were exposed to amiloride and a synthetic derivative known as b428 . the results of this study show clearly that the suppression of invasion of human cancer cells by these inhibitors exceeds that obtained with rat cells in a laboratory invasion chamber . the invention has been described with reference to preferred embodiment . obviously , modifications and alterations will occur to others upon a reading and understanding of this specification . it is intended to include all such modifications and alternations in so far as they come within the scope of the appended claims or the equivalence thereof .
use of the proprietary drug amiloride for the treatment of cancer types that depend on an enzymatic cascade triggered by the activation of plasminogen to plasmin by the specific activating enzyme urokinase plasminogen activator . administration of amiloride inhibits the action of upa , inhibits the ability of the cancer cell to attract new blood supply , blocks the na +/ h + transporter , and inhibits ornithine decarboxylase necessary for dna synthesis . further , in combination with amiloride , a different step in the enzymatic cascade is targeted by a secondary agent , batimistat , for example , which is a metalloprotease inhibitor . additionally , the use of hydrochlorothiazide promotes excretion of potassium .