J.Jpn. Surg. Soc.. 103(2): 229-232, 2002

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Feature topic

CHEMOSENSITIVITY TEST FOR UNRESECTABLE NON-SMALL CELL LUNG CANCER

To choose the optimal chemotherapy regimens, we have employed a new chemosensitivity testing method, the collagen gel droplet embedded culture drug sensitivity test (CDDST) for patients with non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC). This method requires fewer cancer cells (1×10⁵ cells in 2 specimens biopsied by bronchoscopy) than conventional chemosensitivity tests and can be also used to assess cases of malignant effusion. Correlations between the in vitro and in vivo responses were: true positive ratio, 75.0% (21/28 patients); true negative ratio 85.0% (17/20 patients); and accuracy 79.2%.
The median survival time(MST) of patients (n=11) with unresctable NSCLC who were given optimal chemotherapy based on the results of the CDDST was 15.8 months and the MST of those (n=16) who did not receive a sensitive agent was 5.6 months. There was a significant difference between these two groups (p= 0.0048, log-rank test).
These results suggest that the CDDST is an effective method for chemosensitivity testing in unresectable NSCLC.

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