Genome-wide cDNA microarray screening to reveal gene-expression profiles correlated to chemosensitivity of oral squamous cell carcinoma cell lines

One of the most critical issues of cancer chemotherapy is to establish a method for predicting efficacy or toxicity of anti-cancer drugs for individual patients. To identify genes that correlate with chemosensitivity of oral cancer treatment, we performed cDNA microarray analysis of nine oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) cell lines. We compared gene-expression profiling with the sensitivity of OSCC cell lines to five anti-cancer drugs (5-fluorouracil, cisplatin, docetaxel, mitomycin C and adriamycin), which were measured using the collagen gel droplet embedded culture-drug sensitivity test method. We found significant associations between dozens of gene-expression levels and chemosensitivity of OSCC cell lines. These data should prove useful in the identification of predictive drug sensitivity markers, which may eventually provide “personalized chemotherapy” for individual patients, as well as for the development of novel drugs against chemotherapeutic resistance.