Accordance of the chemosensitivity between clinical specimens and their xenografts in nude mice by SDI test and the value of in vivo chemosensitivity test using nude mice

: We assessed the sensitivity to anticancer drugs by SDI (succinate dehydrogenase inhibition) test with 11 clinical specimens obtained from operated patients. The results were compared with those of xenografted specimen in nude mice, using the adjuvant part of the specimens assayed. Chemosensitivity of clinical specimens against 3 drugs is mitomycin (MMC), adriamycin (ADM) and cisplatin (CDDP), showed a good accordance (73%) with those of xenografted tumors. The drug sensitivity was considered to be one of the features of original tumors and to be well preserved in the xenografts in nude mice. We also studied in vivo experimental chemotherapy on 19 tumor lines in nude mice to compare the chemosensitivity with clinical response to the same chemotherapy observed in each donor patient. A close correlation (83% on responder, 100% on non-responder and the overall predicting accuracy rate were 95%) was shown, suggesting in vivo nude mouse assay having an excellent predictability for clinical results.