Comparison of chemosensitivity tests: clonogenic assay versus MTT assay.
When the development of chemotherapeutic agents reaches the clinical trial stage, it is necessary to perform drug sensitivity tests quickly in order to select the most promising agents for the treatment of cancer. In order to assess the possibility of using the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay as a substitute for the human tumor clonogenic assay (HTCA), we evaluated the correlation between the results obtained by these 2 assays in 5 human lung cancer cell lines. The correlation coefficient between the results of the HTCA and the MTT assay was 0.673, indicating a relatively good correlation. The correlation was most prominent in platinum analogues (r = 0.939) and good in anthracyclines/anthracenedione (r = 0.611). However, no significant correlation was observed in vinca alkaloids, etoposide, irinotecan, SN-38 (an active metabolite of irinotecan), and rhizoxin. The results of the MTT assay showed a high degree of correlation with those of the HTCA in predicting the sensitivity of cancer cell lines to platinum analogues, and anthracyclines/anthracenedione. These results suggest that the MTT assay may be more convenient and quickly performed than the HTCA and can replace HTCA in evaluating the effects of anticancer agents, especially the platinum analogues and anthracyclines/anthracenedione.
Kawada
Kazuhiko
K
Department of Internal Medicine II, Okayama University Medical School, Japan.
Yonei
Toshiro
T
Ueoka
Hiroshi
H
Kiura
Katsuyuki
K
Tabata
Masahiro
M
Takigawa
Nagio
N
Harada
Mine
M
Tanimoto
Mitsune
M
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D004396:Coloring Agents; D004354:Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D020128:Inhibitory Concentration 50; D008175:Lung Neoplasms; D013778:Tetrazolium Salts; D013844:Thiazoles; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured / Q000187:drug effects; D014410:Tumor Stem Cell Assay
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D004396:Coloring Agents; D013778:Tetrazolium Salts; D013844:Thiazoles; C022616:thiazolyl blue