[In vitro thermosensitivity of various human tumors evaluated using the SDI (succinate dehydrogenase inhibition)...

In vitro thermosensitivity of various human tumors including 90 esophageal, 10 gastric and 40 colo-rectal cancers were evaluated using the succinate dehydrogenase inhibition (SDI) test. Tumor fragments minced with scissors were incubated at 43 degrees C as heat treated cells and at 37 degrees C as controls for 20 hrs, and assayed for the succinate dehydrogenase (SD) activity using 3-(4, 5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2, 5-diphenyl-2H tetrazolium bromide (MTT) as a hydrogen acceptor. The thermosensitivity was estimated by the percentage of SD activity of heat treated cells compared to that of each control. A variation in the thermosensitivity was noted between patients. The SD activity was 60.1 +/- 20.3% (mean +/- standard deviation) for esophageal cancers, 34.9 +/- 21.7% for gastric cancers, 50.3 +/- 20.6% for colo-rectal cancers. Significant differences were noted between esophageal cancers and gastric cancers, colo-rectal cancers (p less than 0.01 and p less than 0.05, respectively). When the thermosensitivity was arbitrarily defined as reduction in the SD activity to 50% of control or less, the positive rates were 31.1% for esophageal cancer, 70% for gastric cancer and 62.5% for colo-rectal cancer. Our results show that the SDI test is a useful method for determination of the thermosensitivity of clinical samples.