Disulfiram reduces metastatic osteosarcoma tumor burden in an immunocompetent Balb/c or-thotopic mouse model

INTRODUCTION: The overall survival rate of patients with osteosarcoma (OS) and pulmonary metastases has remained stagnant at 15–30% for several decades. Disulfiram (DSF) is an FDA-approved aldehyde dehydrogenase inhibitor that reduces the metastatic phenotype of OS cells in vitro. Here we evaluate its in vivo efficacy, as compared to doxorubicin chemotherapy, in a previously-validated orthotopic model of metastatic OS. RESULTS: All treatment groups displayed a significantly reduced quantitative OS metastatic burden compared with controls. The metastatic burden of Lo DSF-treated animals was equivalent to the DXR group. Ninety-five percent of control animals displayed evidence of metastatic disease, which was significantly greater than all treatment groups. DISCUSSION: Disulfiram treatment resulted in a reduced burden of OS metastatic disease compared with controls. This was statistically-equivalent to doxorubicin. No additive effect was observed between these two therapies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One-hundred twenty immunocompetent Balb/c mice received proximal tibia paraphyseal injections of 5 × 10(5) K7M2 murine OS cells. Therapy began three weeks after injection: saline (control), low-dose disulfiram (Lo DSF), high-dose disulfiram (Hi DSF), doxorubicin (DXR), Lo DSF + DXR, and Hi DSF + DXR. Transfemoral amputations were performed at 4 weeks. Quantitative metastatic tumor burden was measured using near-infrared indocyanine green (ICG) angiography.