[Chemosensitivity test for gastric cancer by in vitro MTT assay]

In vitro MTT assay was applied for examining chemosensitivity with 104 samples; 56 primary tumors, 31 lymph node, 9 liver, and 8 peritoneal metastases, obtained from 87 patients with advanced gastric carcinoma. The rate of effectiveness of various anticancer drugs were as follows; etoposide, 87.7%; cisplatin, 55.1%; mitomycin C, 51.5%; pirarubicin, 50.0%; aclarubicin, 48.8%; carboquone, 31.8%; doxorubicin, 20.3%; and 5-fluorouracil, 12.9%. Etoposide was found to be most effective against gastric carcinoma in this test. Concerning with the metastatic lesions, liver metastases were resistant to all tested drugs. On the other hand, peritoneal metastases were sensitive to etoposide, mitomycin C, and pirarubicin. The results indicate heterogeneity of the chemosensitivity between primary and metastatic lesions, and it was supposed that etoposide might be useful against human gastric cancer.