Tumor chemosensitivity and chemoresistance assays

✍ Scribed by David H. Kern

• Book ID: 101230160
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 49 KB
• Volume: 79
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0008-543X
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0142(19970401)79:7<1447::aid-cncr23>3.0.co;2-z

✦ Synopsis

Brown and Markman 1 present perhaps the best review of this subject to date. For chemosensitivity assays, the authors correctly state that ''the relevant outcome is whether assay-directed chemotherapy regimens actually result in improved survival of the patient.'' No assay-directed chemosensitivity study has demonstrated a significant improvement in patient survival compared with empirical therapy. Correlations between in vitro sensitivity and clinical response are fair at best. A meta-analysis of chemosensitivity assays revealed an overall positive predictive accuracy of 69%. 2 Oncologists have considered this degree of accuracy much too low to be acceptable in routine clinical practice for selecting therapy, especially in diseases for which standard and effective chemotherapy protocols exist. The accuracy of chemosensitivity assays suffers from many factors that are difficult, if not impossible, to simulate in the laboratory.