A simple and rapid in vitro test for determining sensitivity of cancer cells to anticancer drugs

For practical utilization of chemosensitivity tests of malignant cells to anticancer drugs in clinical studies, we developed a new method which is simple, rapid, and applicable to fresh human tumors. The principle of the method is to measure the content of ATP of living cells by chemoluminescence, after drug exposure. A straight linear relationship was observed between the number of viable cells and the light intensity. This method seems to be a good indicator for the selection of anticancer drugs in cancer chemotherapy.