Vinblastine is a chemotherapy drug and is a type of Vinca alkaloid.
It is typically
administered at a dose of 6 milligrams
per square meter of body surface. It's marketed as Velban by Eli Lilly and
has a half-life in the bloodstream of 24 hours. Vinblastine is mainly useful
for treating Hodgkin's disease, lymphocytic lymphoma, histiocytic lymphoma,
advanced testicular cancer, advanced breast cancer, Kaposi's sarcoma, and
Letterer-Siwe disease. It also seems to fight cancer by interfering with
glutamic acid metabolism (specifically, the pathways leading from glutamic
acid to the Krebs cycle and to urea formation). People with bacterial
infections should not be given this drug, nor should pregnant women, since
it caused severe birth defects in animal studies. Side effects include hair
loss, nausea, lowered blood cell counts, headache, stomach pain, numbness,
constipation and mouth sores. Bone marrow damage is the typical
dose-limiting factor.