Drug sensitivity testing for clinical samples from oesophageal cancer using adhesive tumour cell culture system

A total of 83 specimens of surgically resected tumours from 78 patients with oesophageal cancer were assayed for drug sensitivity using an adhesive tumour cell culture system (LifeTrac CSA assay). Seventy-one of 83 specimens had a sufficient number of cells to permit growth in culture and 57 of 71 (80%) were evaluable for drug response. Cells (3 x 10(3) ml(-1) well(-1)) were cultured for 14 days and exposed to drugs on days 3-8. Growing cells were confirmed as cancer cells by immunohistochemical staining. IC90 values against several anti-cancer drugs were determined and population distributions of IC90 for each drug served as the basis for judging sensitivity. The 10th percentiles of IC90 (mu g ml(-1)) for CDDP, 5-FU, DOX, CPM, MTX, VP-16, IFOS, VDS, BLM and CDDP + 5-FU were 0.3, 0.16, 0.005, 0.9, 0.006, 0.09, 0.8, 0.006, 0.04 and 0.15 + 0.09 respectively. The population distribution of IC90 against each drug showed a specific pattern that was very similar among histopathological gradings and stages of the disease. This system appeared to be a clinically applicable drug sensitivity test for human oesophageal cancer.