Activity and Toxicity of Gold Drugs

With gold treatment more than 60% of patients will obtain a beneficial effect with some remission and perhaps 25% will obtain substantial remission for over 1 year [8, 17]. Generally, treatment is continuous weekly injections of up to 50 mg (based on Au content) followed by maintenance therapy at less regular intervals upon favorable response. The two major injected drugs are 112 and 113, administered as an aqueous solution and a suspension in oil, respectively. Initial clinical 

Gold is mainly excreted by renal and fecal routes for AF less than 20% of the clearance is renal compared to over 60% for injected gold. Perhaps up to a third of patients experience lateral toxic effects, although some of these are mild. The chief toxic side effect of AF is gastrointestinal, and other reactions noted for all gold complexes are mucocutaneous, nitritoid, hematological and renal. Cessation of treatment is, however, not common. 

---