Vulvar squamous cell carcinoma cell lines are sensitive to paclitaxel in vitro.
In the current study, paclitaxel sensitivity of eight vulvar squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) cell lines was tested using a 96-well plate clonogenic assay. The chemosensitivity was expressed as IC50 corresponding to the drug concentration causing 50% inhibition in clonogenic survival. IC50 values were obtained from dose-response curves after fitting the data to the linear quadratic equation. The paclitaxel sensitivity of the eight vulvar SCC cell lines expressed as IC50 varied from 0.6 to 2.9 nM. The observed differences between the individual cell lines were surprisingly small, only 4.8-fold at the most. Paclitaxel sensitivity of vulvar SCC cell lines is of the same magnitude as the paclitaxel sensitivity of endometrial and ovarian carcinoma cell lines tested in our preliminary experiments with the same assay. We have previously studied the intrinsic radiosensitivity of these vulvar SCC cell lines. No correlation could be found between radiosensitivity and paclitaxel sensitivity. These results indicate that vulvar SCC is consistently sensitive to paclitaxel in vitro. The role of chemotherapy in the treatment of vulvar carcinoma has not been clarified yet. The efficacy of paclitaxel should be tested further in clinical trials.
Jaakkola
M
M
Department of Medical Biochemistry, University of Turku, Finland.
Rantanen
V
V
Grénman
S
S
Kulmala
J
J
Grénman
R
R
D000972:Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017239:Paclitaxel / Q000494:pharmacology*; D011838:Radiation-Sensitizing Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured; D014846:Vulvar Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology
D000972:Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic; D011838:Radiation-Sensitizing Agents; D017239:Paclitaxel