Abstract
The drug sensitivity test using a human tumor clonogenic assay is an in vitro technique providing a high degree of accuracy for predicting the clinical response to anticancer drugs. The author applied this assay to compare the in vitro anticancer effects of four anthracycline-anthraquinone analogues against lung cancer. The drugs tested in the present study were adriamycin(ADM), aclarubicin(ACR), THP-adriamycin(THP-ADM) and mitoxantrone(MIT). A tumor was defined as sensitive, when the surviving fraction of colony-forming units was reduced 70% or more at a clinically achievable plasma concentration of these drugs in man. Tumor specimens from 100 individual patients were placed in culture. Forty-five specimens (45%) formed enough colonies to test drug sensitivity. Fourteen of the 31 specimens(45%) tested were found to be sensitive for ACR, 15 of 35 (43%) for THP-ADM, 10 of 30 (33%) for MIT, and 7 of 43 (16%) for ADM. These findings indicated that the activity of ACR and THP-ADM is stronger than that of ADM in the treatment of lung cancer.
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