[An in vitro chemosensitivity study using the human tumor clonogenic assay in urological malignancies: a preliminary...

Surgical tumor specimens from 67 urological malignancy patients were subjected to a human tumor clonogenic assay (HTCA) developed by Hamberger and Salmon. Appreciable growth of colonies was obtained in 20 of the 33 renal cancers, 20 of the 30 urothelial cancers and 1 of the 4 testicular cancers examined. Using HTCA, a plating efficiency ranging from 0.01 to 0.5% was obtained in these urologic malignancies. However, colonial growth adequate for chemosensitivity was obtained in 30 of these 67 patients. According to Von Hoff's definition, more than a 70% decrease in the plating efficiency after anticancer drug exposure was defined as susceptible. Susceptibility to vinblastine (VBL) was seen in 4 of the 11 patients with renal cancer. Susceptibility to cis-dichlorodiamine platinum (CDDP) was seen in 4 of the 15 patients with urothelial cancer, 1 of the 4 patients with renal cancer, and that to adriamycin (ADM) was seen in 3 of the 15 patients with urothelial cancer, 2 of the 10 patients with renal cancer and 1 patient with testicular cancer. For comparison, the ratio of IC90 to the peak plasma concentration of the drug tested was used as the "in vivo-in vitro therapeutic index (TI)". According to TI, susceptibility to VBL was seen in 3 of the 7 patients with renal cancer, and that to CDDP was seen in 2 of the 12 patients with urothelial cancer, and 1 of the 2 patients with renal cancer. Susceptibility to ADM was seen in 3 of the 15 patients with urothelial cancer, and 1 of the 6 patients with renal cancer.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)