PRELIMINARY APPROACH OF THE CHEMOSENSITIVE TEST IN ACUTE ADULT LEUKEMIA PATIENTS USING MICROCULTURE TETREZOLIUM (MTT) ASSAY

We applied the microculture tetrezolium (MTT) assay to the antineoplas tic drug sensitivity testing. Thirteen patients with acute lymphatic l eukaemia (ALL) and 41 patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) were involved in the experiment. Ten percent and 20% of the theoretical ma ximal plasma drug concentration (10% C-max and 1/5 C-max) was adopted in tests. The survival of blast cell from bone marrow or peripheral bl ood was measured after 44 hrs continuous exposure to drugs, either sep arately or in combination, and an additional 8 hrs MTT incubation foll owed. A 50% reduction (IC50) in absorbance, compared with control valu es using an ELISA reader at 570 nm, was referred as a threshold of dru g sensitivity, Retrospective research indicates that a 66.7% and 68.5% correspondence was achieved between tested data and clinical results at 1/10 C-max and 1/5 C-max respectively. A total of 13 drugs was sele cted and in each case 8 drugs and 1 or 2 protocols were tested. The pr eliminary results show Hom, DNR, Ara-C and their protocol can gain per fectly correspondence, and that effective prediction, using AMSA, Mito x and Acla, can be obtained.