Stress Induced Changes in the Testis of Rat Following Etoposide Treatment

The advances in anticancer chemotherapy has led to remarkable increase in the survival rates of cancer patients, but the quality of life after successful treatment is still of great concern. Gonadal dysfunction especially the spermatogenic disorders in male patients are among the major problems caused by chemotherapeutic drugs like etoposide. Etoposide (VP-16) is a semi-synthetic derivative of podophyllotoxin, which is used in treating variety of cancers like testicular cancer, lympohomas, lung cancer, Hodgkin's disease and leukemia. It is topoisomerase-E inhibitor and mediates its action through'the its ability to stabilize a cleavable complex between itself, DNA and topoisomerase-II thereby producing single and double strand breaks in DNA. Though the negative regulation of spermatogenesis has been observed in patients treated with etoposide, the detailed pathway leading to the arrest of spermatogenesis is not yet fully understood.