Antitumour activity of oxaliplatin in neuroblastoma cell lines

Oxaliplatin appears non cross-resistant with cisplatin and has a comparable antitumour effect both in preclinical and clinical studies. We compared th e antitumour effect of oxaliplatin with that of cisplatin in human neurobla stoma cell lines SK-N-DZ, LAN-1 and BE(2)M17 following 24 h exposure at con centrations ranging from 0.5 to 5 mu M. Oxaliplatin was less potent with IC 50 values 1.08-3.4-fold higher than cisplatin. Like cisplatin, oxaliplatin induced a cell cycle block in the G(2)/M phase although to a lesser extent than that caused by cisplatin. The concomitant increase of DNA fragmentatio n and decrease of G(2)/G(1) ratio at 72 h indicated that a fraction of bloc ked cells underwent apoptosis, Morphological analysis confirmed these data, although oxaliplatin appeared to be 2-3 times less potent than cisplatin in inducing apoptosis. Our results indicate that oxaliplatin is active in neu roblastoma in vitro and this finding warrants in vivo preclinical studies. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.