Taurolidine is a synthetic taurine analog with antimicrobial and anti-neoplastic actions. It displays broad bactericidal and fungicidal activity.

Incubation of the tumor cells with Taurolidine resulted in a 4-fold decrease in proliferation rates (25+/-4% vs. 100+/-28% for controls) and a 4-fold increase in cell necrosis as demonstrated by the increase in LDH release (403+/-28% vs. 100+/-26% for controls), at a Taurolidine concentration of 25 microg/ml.?A dose-dependent decrease in cell viability was also observed[1].

In vivo, local Taurolidine administration resulted in significant decreases in tumor burden (3+/-1 nodules in Group B animals vs. 649+/-101 nodules in Group A animals)[1].

In the in vitro experiments, DHD/K12/TRb cells were incubated with 5, 10, 15, 25, microg/ml of Taurolidine.?Cells incubated in culture medium alone were used as controls.?Cell proliferation, cell viability, cell death, and cell apoptosis were measured using commercially available techniques[1].

In the in vivo experiment, BD IX rats were randomized into two groups (n = 10/group).?Group A (control) underwent laparotomy and instillation of DHD/K12/TRb tumor cells intraperitoneally followed by phosphate buffered saline (PBS).?Group B received Taurolidine (100 mg/kg) instead of PBS.?Animals were killed after 24 days and tumor burden assessed by counting the number of tumor nodules in the peritoneal cavity[1].