In mouse experiments, a synthetic peptide called vilon helped mice with lung cancer live longer when given alone, but when it was mixed with the chemotherapy drug cyclophosphane, the mice did worse. In lab-grown spleen tissue from rats, vilon caused cell death (apoptosis) in both young and old animals and blocked the harmful effects of cyclophosphane at very low concentrations. The authors suggest that vilon and chemotherapy should not be taken together.

The experiments were performed in mice with transplanted Lewis lung carcinoma. The injections of synthetic peptide vilon at the doses 1 mg/kg significantly increased the survival of mice. So vilon has possessed the oncomodulating action on the transplanted carcinoma. The synchronous injection both of vilon and cyclophosphan at the doses 100 mg/kg decreases the survival of mice. There was also studied in spleen organotypic tissue culture the effect of vilon and cyclophosphan on the development of explants of rats of various age: 1 day and 2 years old. Vilon stimulated apoptosis both in young and old rats, but the inhibitory effect of cyclophosphan was abolished in the presence of vilon in culture media at the dose 5 ng/ml. The results obtained suggested that perspective preparates in the cancer therapy--vilon and cytostatic drugs-, must be used not synchronously.