Correlation of in vitro cytotoxicity and clinical response to chemotherapyin ovarian and breast cancer patients

During the last years, a number of assays have been developed aiming at pre dicting the most effective chemotherapy regimen for each individual, avoidi ng possible toxicity of ineffective drugs. In the present study we have ris en an in vitro chemosensitivity-chemoresistance assay in order to evaluate cytotoxic treatment in ovarian and breast cancer patients. The assay was ap plied in 77 ovarian and breast cancer samples and the observed in vitro res ponses to various chemotherapeutic drugs combinations of drugs were then co r ten to the in vivo responses and the overall clinical data of the examine d patients. Direct comparison was possible for 25 cases. The overall positi ve predictive value of the assay was 50% and the negative predictive value was 57%. However; it was observed that the positive, predictive value for o varian patients was 69% and that the negative predictive value for breast p atients was 100%. Therefore this study indicates that although in vitro che mosensitvity/chemoresistance is a valuable assay, further-analysis and impl ications of other factors are required for a general evaluation of cytotoxi c treatment for patients with ovarian and breast cancer.