title: Subrenal capsule assay in human breast cancer. Response to cytostatic drug combinations and correlation with receptor status.
abstract: The subrenal capsule assay (SRCA) was used to study the sensitivity of breast cancer to cytostatic drug combinations. The results were compared with steroid receptor status. Forty-five of 46 SRCAs (98%) were macroscopically evaluable. However, a histological study implied that the transplants should also be evaluated histologically, because in only 14/21 (67%) of the control SRCAs examined were histologically viable tumor cells seen. An inflammatory cell reaction was noticed in half of the cases. In the groups treated with cytostatics only 3/21 (14%) had vital tumor cells, whereas inflammation was evident in 4/21 (19%) of the cases. The rate of resistance to A + CTX was 30%. By testing several drug combinations against each tumor the rate of chemoresistance was reduced to 10%. The differences between A + CTX and the best combination were statistically significant (P less than 0.05). Of the tumors 79% were ER-positive and 67% PR-positive. Receptor-negative tumors tended to be more sensitive to cytostatics than receptor-positive tumors (100 vs 85%). The difference was not, however, statistically significant. It can be concluded that the SRCA under standardized conditions is a good method for studying the response of individual breast cancers to chemotherapy.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D003520:Cyclophosphamide / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004317:Doxorubicin / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004351:Drug Resistance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007668:Kidney; D051379:Mice; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D008875:Middle Aged; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone / Q000378:metabolism; D011987:Receptors, Steroid / Q000378:metabolism*; D014410:Tumor Stem Cell Assay / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D011980:Receptors, Progesterone; D011987:Receptors, Steroid; D004317:Doxorubicin; D003520:Cyclophosphamide