THE ESTABLISHMENT, CHARACTERIZATION AND CALIBRATION OF HUMAN OVARIAN-CARCINOMA XENOGRAFTS FOR THE EVALUATION OF NOVEL PLATINUM ANTICANCER DRUGS

Summary: Twenty-three serially transplantable ovarian carcinoma xenografts have been established in female nude mice from forty-two donor samples provided by both previously treated and untreated patients. The lines are all of human karyotype and mirror the histopathology of the original explant. Sixteen examples have been calibrated against four reference platinum drugs: cisplatin, carboplatin, iproplatin, tetraplatin. Three distinct patterns of response were observed: (i) tumors which were comparably sensitive to all four drugs (2 lines); (ii) tumors which were comparably refractory to treatment with all four drugs (5 lines); (iii) tumors which exhibited "individual" patterns of response to the group of calibrating drugs (9 lines). The "response rate" overall of the tumor panel to each of the clinically used drugs was 44% (7/16), though the pattern of response was not identical for each drug. Only 2/16 tumors (13%) were sensitive to tetraplatin, these also being the same tumors which were particularly sensitive to the other three drugs. It was also possible to confirm in 8/9 lines that the therapeutic response of the xenograft reflected that of the corresponding patient's tumor to platinum-based chemotherapy. This tumour panel has now been adopted for evaluating novel platinum-based drugs designed specifically for the treatment of ovarian cancer. © 1990 Kluwer Academic Publishers.