Human meningeal sarcoma heterotransplants in Nu/Nu mice treated with L-phenylalanine mustard (L-PAM) and dianhydrogalactitol (DAG).

The clinical characteristics and response to therapy of a patient with meningeal sarcoma, one of four patients over a twenty-five year period at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, are described. The light and electron microscopic characteristics of the primary tumor and as a heterotransplant in nude mice showed minimal differences. The tumor was resistant to conventional chemotherapeutic agents, both in the patient, in vitro as a cell culture and ex vivo as a heterotransplant. Only a combination of L-phenylalanine mustard and dianhydrogalactitol produced a limited response in both the patient and the mice. This combination may have some utility in future cases.