AN IN-VITRO CHEMOSENSITIVITY TEST FOR SOLID HUMAN TUMORS USING COLLAGEN GEL DROPLET EMBEDDED CULTURES

In vitro chemosensitivity testing using a collagen gel droplet embedde d culture drug sensitivity test (CD-DST), was conducted with several t ypes of solid cancer. The overall evaluable rate was 80% (443/554), in cluding 76% for lung (n=243), 78% for breast (n=110), 87% for gastric (n=62), 83% for colorectal (n=107) cancers and 88% for 32 metastatic b rain tumors. The in vitro sensitivity of breast, gastric and colorecta l cancers to mitomycin C (MMC), cisplatin (CDDP), 5-fluorouracil (5-FU ) and doxorubicin (DXR) was similar to the efficacy rates reported for each drug. This was also observed with lung cancer, the sensitivity o f which to MMC, CDDP, vindesine (VDS) and etoposide (VP-16) was simila r to the clinical efficacy. The clinical response to chemotherapy was compared with the results of in vitro chemosensitivity testing in Il p atients: the clinical correlation was 91%, with a 80% true positive an d 100% true negative rate. These results suggest that the CD-DST may b e clinically useful by allowing the prediction of clinical response in various solid cancers.