[Potential and limitation of scintillation assay (TIA) for clinical chemotherapy]

The clinical significance of the scintillation assay (thymidine incorporation assay) which we developed was summarized as follows; 1)thymidine uptake by tumor cells which can be evaluated in each assay functioned as a significant predictor of prognosis of patients with gastric or colorectal cancer, 2)the tumor cell compartment in this assay system significantly increased more than did those in other culture systems, 3)evaluable rates were increased to more than 80% by introduction of the preculture system with collagen coated flasks, and 4)it can be considered that chemosensitivity testings may benefit for some types of human tumor, but not for all.