Cisplatin sensitivity of ovarian cancer in the histoculture drug response assay correlates to clinical response to combination chemotherapy with cisplatin, doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide

The histoculture drug sensitivity assay (HDRA) has been demonstrated to hav e high predictability for resistance sensitivity and survival for gastroint estinal cancer (Clin Cancer Res 1: 305-311, 1995; Clin Cancer Res 1: 1537-1 543, 1995). In this report, we evaluated the clinical usefulness of the HDR A in ovarian cancer HDRA was performed on tumors from patients with ovarian cancer. Eighty-five cases (97%) were evaluable. Tumor fragments were cultu red on collagen-sponge gels. The cultures were incubated with cisplatin (CD DP) for seven days. Cell viability were assessed with the MTT end point. Th e optimal cut off concentration of CDDP was determined to be 25 mu g/ml by correlation with the historical clinical response rate to CDDP. HDRA result s were correlated to clinical response of 15 patients who received CDDP-bas ed therapy that included doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide (CAP therapy). Th e true positive rate was 88%, the true negative rate was 86%, the sensitivi ty was 88%, the specificity was 86%. and the accurate prediction rate was 8 7% when HDRA results were compared to the response of the treated patients. The data suggest that the HDRA is capable of predicting the response to an titumor chemotherapy in patients with ovarian cancer and that measuring res ponse to CDDP can be useful for optimization of CAP chemotherapy for patien ts with this disease.