[Basic and clinical study of anticancer effect of etoposide on choriocarcinoma]

To establish a new method for treating choriocarcinoma, basic and clinical studies were made on Etoposide, a newly developed anticancer drug. I. Basic study 1) The crystal violet uptake sensitivity tests for anticancer drugs were examined with 5 human choriocarcinoma cell lines, BeWo, SCH, HCCM-5, JEG and SMT-CCl. 2) A drug concentration which could reduce the survival rate of SMT-CCl cells to 50% was regarded as the standard concentration. 3) Etoposide showed the same strong anticancer activity on all the choriocarcinoma cell lines as Act-D and CPA. II. Clinical study 1) In the treatment of trophoblastic diseases (choriocarcinoma 15 cases and invasive mole 14 cases), Etoposide therapy manifested a much higher effective rate (93.3%) than conventional Act-D therapy (50.0%) and MTX therapy (21.0%). But side effects of Etoposide therapy were milder than those of the other drugs. 2) Especially in the high risk choriocarcinoma group, the remission rate was 50% (PR 3, NC 2 and PD 1) for the conventional MAC protocol and 100% (CR 3 and PR 2) for the MECA protocol. In conclusion, it was demonstrated basically and clinically that Etoposide was very effective in the treatment of choriocarcinoma.