Abstract
In vitro chemosensitivity testing of short term primary glioma cultures derived from brain biopsies is still in the research phase and has not yet found a place in clinical use. The main reasons for this slow progression are the small amounts of tissue available and the lack of a suitably sensitive assay capable of use in the clinical setting. This study examines whether the MTS and ATP cell survival assays, which determine cytotoxicity via colorimetric and luminescence analysis respectively, could potentially fulfill this role. Primary glioma cultures were tested for chemosensitivity using the MTS and ATP assays and were found to be generally sensitive to cisplatin and paclitaxel but relatively resistant to carmustine and etoposide. For both assays, LD50 values lay in the range 2 - 130 μg/ml but in the vast majority of cases, those obtained by the ATP assay were markedly lower those obtained by the MTS assay. Moreover, at cell numbers less than 2000 in the cases of paclitaxel and carmustine and less than 4500 in the case of cisplatin, these drugs were generally indicated as ineffective against the glioma cultures tested by the MTS assay but effective against these cultures by the ATP assay. These data clearly demonstrate that the ATP assay is more sensitive when estimating small cell numbers generated by primary glioma cultures from brain biopsies and more reliably detects higher kill rates by anticancer drugs. This study also supports the feasibility of using the ATP assay for chemosensitivity testing in a clinical setting.
Highlights
The in vitro testing of chemotherapeutic response in tumours is not a new concept but lost a great deal of momentum in the “oncogene” years of the 1970’s and 1980’s despite several studies which reported correlations between chemosensitivity and in vivo effect [1,2,3,4]
All 15 cases were tested for cisplatin sensitivity and dose-response curves were obtained for all 15 samples with the ATP assay but only 9 of these cases gave a dose-response with the MTS assay, even at the highest dose of chemotherapeutic agent
The availability of primary glioma cell numbers limited studies on carmustine and etoposide to 5 and 3 cases respectively but these showed a similar pattern of responsiveness with the ATP
Summary
The in vitro testing of chemotherapeutic response in tumours is not a new concept but lost a great deal of momentum in the “oncogene” years of the 1970’s and 1980’s despite several studies which reported correlations between chemosensitivity and in vivo effect [1,2,3,4] Such testing in gliomas remains in the research phase and has not been adopted for clinical use as has been in the case of some other cancers such as leukaemia [5,6,7].
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
