title: Prediction of drug resistance in cancer chemotherapy: the Kern and DiSC assays.
abstract: In the opinion of the authors, good medical practice demands the avoidance of ineffective therapies and good cancer chemotherapy generally demands the avoidance of inactive drugs. The authors present their viewpoint that randomized trials are not required to prove that physicians should not administer inactive drugs and that existing cell culture assays are acceptably accurate in identifying inactive drugs. They describe and advocate the use of two such tests to aid in choosing between different forms of therapy that would otherwise be equally acceptable in the absence of test information. Strengths, weaknesses, and applications of the assays are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Oncotech, Inc. Irvine, California.
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Weisenthal
authors.forename: D H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Kern
mesh_terms: D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D004351:Drug Resistance; D004354:Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013936:Thymidine / Q000378:metabolism; D014410:Tumor Stem Cell Assay
chemical_list: D013936:Thymidine