[A study of fibroblasts in the chemosensitivity testing on human lung cancer cell lines]

The purpose of this study is to assess effects of fibroblasts in the vitro chemosensitivity testing on human lung cancer cells and to remove them. Fourteen lung cancer cell lines and 14 fibroblasts derived from resected specimens of lung cancers were used, whose S.D (succinate dehydrogenase) activities were measured with MTT colorimetric assay. The chemosensitivity of a lung cancer cell alone was compared with that of mixed cancer cell and fibroblast. As results, S.D activities of fibroblasts were less 2-4 fold than those of lung cancer cells. Fibroblasts were as sensitive to CDDP, MMC and 5-FU as lung cancer cells, but more sensitive to ADM and VP-16 than them. When sensitivity testings were performed on mixed cancer cells and fibroblasts, or mixed cancer cells and conditioned media of fibroblasts to CDDP with 3 day's incubation times, the sensitivity was affected in 61%, or 10% of all the pairs, respectively. However, when these tests were done without any incubation times, the sensitivity was not affected. Therefore, it was suggested that anticancer drugs had to be simultaneously added when single cell suspensions were plated if resected specimens were used in a anticancer drug sensitivity test.