Ovarian cancer: relationship between in vitro chemosensitivity and clinical response

Thirty-nine samples from 30 patients with epithelial ovarian cancer were collected. Using the method described by A. Hamburger (J. Natl. Cancer Inst. 66, 981 (1981] and P. Salmon et al. (N. Engl. J. Med. 308, 129 (1983], tumor cells were exposed to antineoplastic agents (Adriamycin and cis-platinum) and then cultured in double-layer agar. There were 23 evaluable patients. The percentage of complete and partial responses for patients whose cells were sensitive in vitro, whether or not treated with the same drugs, was 68, vs 44% compared to patients whose cells were resistant in vitro and treated in vivo with therapeutic regimens which may or may not have included drugs used in the test. More patients with residual tumor greater than 2 cm were resistant to chemotherapy.