[Study of flow cytometric BrdU/DNA assay]

To investigate the possibility of flow cytometric BrdU/DNA assay as a rapid chemosensitivity test, preliminary studies were performed utilizing CDDP-sensitive and CDDP-resistant mouse leukemic L1210 cell lines. The results indicated that the anticancer effects of CDDP to these cells could be rapidly determined by analyzing the effects on cell kinetics and the effects on BrdU uptake with this method. Also, this method could detect CDDP-resistant cells at proportion approaching 0.1% in a predominantly CDDP-sensitive population. In the near future, this flow cytometric method could be utilized not only as a useful screening test for anticancer drugs for initial cancer chemotherapy but also as a monitoring test to rapidly detect drug-resistant cells and thereby aid in the selection of a more effective anticancer therapy.