# Plicamycin

Source: https://onco.cc/drugs/plicamycin/  
OnCo record `plicamycin` (Treatment). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Plicamycin, approved in 1970, was a chemotherapy for testicular cancer that fell out of use as cisplatin arrived, and was kept for treating dangerously high calcium levels caused by cancer until it was discontinued in 2000.

## Summary

Mithramycin came from Streptomyces plicatus and was approved by the FDA in 1970 for disseminated testicular tumours not amenable to surgery or radiotherapy, and for hypercalcaemia and hypercalciuria of malignancy, where a single low dose lowered calcium within a day or two by suppressing osteoclasts. Bleeding from thrombocytopenia and platelet dysfunction and liver and kidney toxicity limited it, cisplatin-based combinations made it obsolete in germ cell tumours, and bisphosphonates replaced it for hypercalcaemia. Pfizer discontinued it in 2000. It has returned to research as a selective Sp1 inhibitor in Ewing sarcoma and other cancers.

## Fields

- Kind: Treatment
- Status: historic
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Also known as: Mithramycin; Aureolic acid
- Tags: gap-fill; chembl-universe
- Brand: Mithracin
- Modality: Aureolic acid antibiotic cytotoxic, intravenous
- Mechanism: Binds GC-rich DNA and displaces the transcription factor Sp1, silencing genes including those that drive osteoclast activity and cancer cell growth.
- Approvals: US 1970: Disseminated testicular tumours; hypercalcaemia and hypercalciuria of malignancy

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plicamycin
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plicamycin
- ChEMBL CHEMBL1200937: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/chembl/explore/compound/CHEMBL1200937

## Connected records

- cancers: [Ewing sarcoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/ewing-sarcoma/), [Testicular germ cell tumours](https://onco.cc/cancers/testicular/)
- technologies: [Cytotoxic chemotherapy](https://onco.cc/technologies/cytotoxic-chemotherapy/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/plicamycin.json