History
Mitomycin was discovered in the 1950s by Japanese scientists in  cultures of the microorganism Streptomyces caespitosus.It was approved based on the results of the OLYMPUS (NCT02793128) multicenter trial involving 71 subjects with low-grade UTUC. These subjects had never undergone treatment (treatment-naïve) or had recurrent low-grade non-invasive UTUC with at least one measurable papillary tumor (a tumor shaped like a small mushroom with its stem attached to the inner lining of an organ) located above the ureteropelvic junction. Subjects received mitomycin gel once a week (mitomycin gel 4 mg per mL instillations via ureteral catheter or nephrostomy tube) for six weeks and, if assessed as a complete response (complete disappearance of the papillary tumor), monthly for up to eleven additional months. Efficacy of mitomycin gel was evaluated using urine cytology (a test to look for abnormal cells in a subjectss urine), ureteroscopy (an examination of the upper urinary tract) and biopsy (if warranted) three months following the initiation of therapy.The primary endpoint was complete response at three months following initiation of therapy. A complete response was found in 41 of the 71 subjects (58%) following six treatments of mitomycin gel administered weekly. Durability of the effect of mitomycin gel in subjects with a complete response was also evaluated using urine cytology, ureteroscopy and biopsy (if warranted) every three months for a year following the initiation of therapy.
It may also cause lung fibrosis and renal damage. Anticancer treatments with chemotherapeutic agents often impair brain cell function leading to memory loss and cognitive dysfunction. In order to understand the basis of these impairments, mice were treated with mitomycin C, a chemotherapeutic agent, and cells of the prefrontal cortex were examined. This treatment resulted in an increase of the oxidative DNA damage 8-oxo-dG, a decrease in the enzyme OGG1 that ordinarily repairs such damage and epigenetic alterations. These alterations at the DNA level may explain, at least in part, the impairments of cognitive function after chemotherapy.Common side effects are ureteric obstruction (narrowing or blockage of the ureter that may lead to excess fluid in the kidney due to a backup of urine), flank pain (pain occurring on the side of the body), urinary tract infection, hematuria (blood in the urine), renal dysfunction (inability of the kidney to function in its designed capacity), fatigue, nausea, abdominal pain, dysuria (painful or difficult urination) and vomiting. Pharmacology
Mitomycin C is a potent DNA crosslinker. A single crosslink per genome has shown to be effective in killing bacteria. This is accomplished by reductive activation of mitomycin to form a mitosene, which reacts successively via N-alkylation of two DNA bases. Both alkylations are sequence specific for a guanine nucleoside in the sequence 5-CpG-3.Mitomycin gel is an alkylating drug, meaning it inhibits the transcription of DNA into RNA, stopping protein synthesis and taking away the cancer cells ability to multiply.