[Anticancer drug sensitivity test and its clinical evaluation in 15 cases of acute leukemia and lymphoma]

We carried out in vitro anticancer drug sensitivity tests a total of 24 times in 15 cases of childhood leukemias and lymphomas using the microplate culture and crystal violet staining method. We then compared them with the clinical effects. As a result, the in vitro efficacy rate at onset of cases was 40%, which was less than that for relapsed cases, which was 100%. Especially, cases of ALL at onset all failed. As for the relation between in vitro and in vivo effects, cases for which it was possible to make evaluation both in vitro and in vivo numbered 16. The results for these cases were; true positive rate, 71%; true negative rate, 50%; predictive accuracy, 69%. The true positive rate was higher than the usual rate. As for the efficiency of each anticancer drug, in vitro predictive accuracy for ADR, Ara-C and 4 HCP (CPM) was higher than for other drugs. From these results, it became clear that our method is very useful for the screening of effective anticancer drugs.