Comparative Chemosensitivity of VX2 and HCC Cell Lines to Drugs Used in TACE

To compare the cytotoxic effects of 11 anticancer agents against VX2 and HepG2 cells in order to establish candidate drugs that can be tested preclinically on VX2 tumor model for transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

VX2 and HepG2 cells were incubated with different drug concentrations. The half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values were determined by total cell protein assay for anthracyclines, platins, irinotecan, mytomicin-C (MMC), 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and antiangiogenics.

IC50 values for VX2 and HepG2 were found close for doxorubicin (0.8 μM vs. 1.1 μM), MMC (13.9 μM vs. 8.7 μM), sunitinib (32.7 vs. 33.7 μM), sorafenib (10.3 vs. 8.9 μM), lapatinib (30 vs. 18.3 μM) and different for platins and irinotecan. Oxaliplatin was less active against VX2 than HepG2 (IC50=41 μM vs. 2.7 μM), cisplatin was more active against VX2 than HepG2 (IC50=8.0 μM vs. 15.9 μM), whereas carboplatin had a low toxicity against both cell lines (70.4 μM vs. 538.3 μM). The toxicity of 5-FU against VX2 and HepG2 was low (IC50=560.6 μM vs. 323.2 μM). Irinotecan was less active against VX2 vs. HepG2 (IC50=44.5 μM vs. 15.3 μM). Bevacizumab had no effect on either of the cell lines up to 6.7 μM.

Drugs recommended for pre-clinical trials of TACE in the VX2 model are doxorubicin, sunitinib, sorafenib, MMC, lapatinib and 5-FU.