Summary
We investigated the responsiveness of human normal granulocyte-macrophage colony-forming units in culture (GM-CFUC) continuously exposed in vitro to 1 of 12 anticancer drugs. All drugs except bleomycin showed a simple negative exponential dosesurvival curve. The in vitro toxicity of drugs in GM-CFUC did not always correlate with the relative myelosuppressive potency observed in vivo. In addition, tumor specimens from 38 patients mainly with ovarian cancer were cultured in a human tumor colony-forming assay and continuously exposed to drugs at low, intermediate, and high concentrations capable of killing 40%, 78%, and 99% of GM-CFUC, respectively. The most active drugs were cis-platinum, velban, 5-fluorouracil, and 5-fluoro-ara-AMP. Dosesurvival curves of bone marrow progenitor cells may serve as an in vitro reference system for selecting appropriate drug concentrations of myelosuppressive drugs in drug-sensitivity assays of human tumors.
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This work was supported by NIH grants CA 28153, CA 14528, CA 23272, the Max Kade Foundation, New York, and the Leukemia Society of America
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Umbach, G.E., Hug, V., Spitzer, G. et al. Survival of human bone marrow cells after in vitro treatment with 12 anticancer drugs and implications for tumor drug sensitivity assays. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 109, 130–134 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00391887
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00391887