CHEMOTHERAPY SENSITIVITY ASSESSMENT OF LEUKEMIC COLONY-FORMING CELLS WITH INVITRO SIMULTANEOUS EXPOSURE TO MULTIPLE-DRUGS - CLINICAL CORRELATIONS IN ACUTE NONLYMPHOCYTIC LEUKEMIA

  • 1 January 1982
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 66  (6) , 1257-1261
Abstract
For 13 patients with acute nonlymphocytic leukemia receiving 4-drug combination chemotherapy [vincristine, cytarabine and prednisone with doxorubicin or zorubicin] (14 chemotherapy trials), leukemic bone marrow cells were obtained before treatment and were exposed in vitro to all 4-drug-mixture solutions simultaneously followed by the survival assessment of leukemic colony-forming cells (L-CFU). Survival of normal marrow colony-forming cells (CFU-C [granulocytic progenitor cells]) was also assessed concurrently; the sensitivity index (SI) of leukemic cells was determined as the ratio of the survival of CFU-C to that of L-CFU. Correlations of in vitro results to clinical results were excellent. Four of 5 trials resulting in complete remission had high SI; 8 of 9 trials without complete remission had low SI (P = 0.02). The potential advantages of this method of exposing cells to drug mixture are discussed in terms of detecting drug synergism and improving the efficiency of in vitro chemotherapy sensitivity studies.