The susceptibility to amphotericin B-induced hemolysis of erythrocytes from women with breast cancer before and during therapy

The kinetics of hemolysis induced by amphotericin B in erythrocytes obtained from women with breast cancer before and during therapy (surgical operation, chemotherapy) was investigated. The changes in absorbance of erythrocyte suspension were monitored by absorption spectrophotometric methods at λ=590 nm. The kinetics of hemolysis induced by amphotericin B in erythrocytes of patients before operation or chemotherapy is the permeability type and is not changed during therapy. The process is similar to that observed in erythrocytes from healthy women. There is no statistical difference between the resistance to amphotericin B of erythrocytes obtained from women with breast cancer before treatment and the resistance obtained for healthy women. The resistance is independent of the cancer stage. Significant increase in the resistance to amphotericin B is found after surgical operation (P<0.01). The increase in resistance to amphotericin B is correlated with the decrease of erythrocyte number, hemoglobin content, and hematocrit. Chemotherapy does not change the resistance of erythrocytes to amphotericin B. The osmotic fragility of patient erythrocytes does not show any significant difference to that obtained for healthy women. No correlation between the osmotic fragility and the resistance of erythrocytes to amphotericin B was found. This indicates that erythrocyte resistance to amphotericin B is not determined by volume and membrane surface area.