Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cell lines are highly sensitive to the new taxanes, BMS-184476, BMS-188797, in vitro.
BACKGROUND
The development of synthetic taxanes targets at increasing solubility of the drug, improved clinical efficacy and reduced side-effects. We evaluated the sensitivity of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cell lines to BMS-184476 and BMS-188797 in vitro.


METHODS
The effects of paclitaxel and the synthetic taxanes were tested on six recently established cell lines (3 oral cavity SCC, 3 laryngeal SCC) using the 96-well plate clonogenic assay. The IC50 values, corresponding to the mean inactivation dose, were obtained from the dose response curves.


RESULTS
All tested cell lines were considerably more sensitive to both synthetic taxanes compared to paclitaxel. As a rule, the IC50 concentration for paclitaxel was 4-5.5 times higher than that of BMS-184476 or BMS-188797. The sensitivity to these drugs varied from cell line to cell line, and time lapse video microscopy showed a mitotic arrest with subsequent apoptosis after four hours with BMS-188797.


CONCLUSIONS
These results indicate that the synthetic taxanes could be useful clinically and warrant in vitro testing in combined modality models, like concurrent chemoradiation.
Raitanen
Misa
M
Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Medical Biochemistry, University of Turku, Turku University Hospital, FIN-20520 Turku, Finland.
Pulkkinen
Jaakko
J
Kulmala
Jarmo
J
Grénman
Reidar
R
D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000188:drug therapy*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D004354:Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D018715:Microscopy, Video; D017239:Paclitaxel / Q000494:pharmacology; D043823:Taxoids / Q000494:pharmacology*
C436443:BMS188797; D043823:Taxoids; C426424:7-methylthiomethylpaclitaxel; D017239:Paclitaxel