title: Clinical usefulness of chemosensitivity test for advanced colorectal cancer.
abstract: We assessed the usefulness of the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay in the evaluation of appropriate adjuvant cancer chemotherapy for patients with advanced colorectal cancer. We analyzed 405 cases of colorectal cancer treated between January 1990 and August 1999 in terms of the MTT assay and survival outcome. Patients with Dukes' C and D were classified into a "surgery alone" group (n = 53), a "sensitive" group who received drugs that had a greater than 50% inhibition rate by MTT assay (n = 23), or "resistant"" group who were insensitive to the chemotherapy drugs (n = 124). Statistically significant differences in survival outcome were observed between the groups, with the sensitive group showing significantly better survival compared with the resistant group (p = 0.0158) and the surgery-alone group (p = 0.0004). Our results suggest that the MTT assay may be useful in evaluating the optimum adjuvant chemotherapy for patients with advanced colorectal cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Keio University, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-8582, Japan.
authors.forename: Yasuo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kabeshima
authors.forename: Tetsuro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kubota
authors.forename: Masahiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: Hirotoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hasegawa
authors.forename: Toshiharu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Furukawa
authors.forename: Masaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kitajima
mesh_terms: D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D002945:Cisplatin / Q000008:administration & dosage; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D019008:Drug Resistance, Neoplasm; D004354:Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016685:Mitomycin / Q000008:administration & dosage; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D015996:Survival Rate; D005641:Tegafur / Q000008:administration & dosage; D013778:Tetrazolium Salts; D013844:Thiazoles; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014498:Uracil / Q000008:administration & dosage
chemical_list: D013778:Tetrazolium Salts; D013844:Thiazoles; D005641:Tegafur; D016685:Mitomycin; D014498:Uracil; C022616:thiazolyl blue; D002945:Cisplatin