Pharmacokinetics of the oral narcotic analgesic bezitramide and preliminary observations on its effect on experimentally induced pain.

The oral absorption of bezitramide 5 mg was studied in 7 human volunteers, using a specific radioimmuno-assay which measured both bezitramide and its active metabolite R-4618. A lag time of 0.5-1.

Clinical evaluation of radio-labelled bleomycin for tumor detection.

Investigations with bleomycin labelled with radionuclides other than 57Co in patients with cancer and in tumor-bearing animals are described. In patients 57Co-bleo appears to be a better tumor-seeking radiopharmaceutical than 111In-bleo, 99mTc-bleo or 197Hg-bleo. This can be explained by a higher stability in vivo and a better tumor-seeking property of 57Co-bleo and less disturbing activity in the cardiac pool and in bone and other normal tissues when assessing the scintigram.

Labelling of bleomycin with cobalt-57, indium-111, technetium-99m, mercury-197, lead-203, and copper-67.

The radiochemical purity of the cobalt-57 complex of bleomycin could be enhanced by adjusting the pH of the final product to a value between 5 and 6. This radiopharmaceutical appeared to have better tumor visualizing properties compared to the not neutralized preparation. The clinical use of the cobalt-57 bleomycin complex is however limited by the long physical half-life of the label, causing a risk of radioactive contamination.