ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: Cancers are highly individual in their response to chemotherapy, however attempts to predict tumor response to drugs using in vitro cell culture have largely failed. A new technology, the histoculture drug response assay (HDRA), appears to have solved many previous problems. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the reliability of HDRA in a chemosensitivity test for breast cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Tumor specimens from breast cancer patients were evaluated by HDRA using different chemotherapeutic agents. Each specimen was tested using a blind method in order to determine the reproducibility of HDRA results for the same tissue and with a triplicated assay in order to determine reproducibility by different examiners. The evaluative power of this assay and the chemosensitivity of drugs for each specimen was determined. RESULTS: Specimens of 92.9% (65/70) were successfully cultured and evaluated for chemosensitivity. The reproducibility of HDRA for the same tissue was 75% (100% agreement) and 100% (over 70% agreement), respectively. And the reproducibility by different examiners was 78.9% (100% agreement) and 94.7% (over 70% agreement), respectively. Each specimen demonstrated a response to at least one agent. CONCLUSION: The evaluative power and reproducibility of HDRA were high, therefore it might serve as a reliable clinical method for chemosensitivity testing. However, there is a need for clinical trial in which patients are initially randomized for treatment either by HDRA direction or by clinician's choice.
ABSTRACT
Members of Proteeae were vertically inoculated into different brands of sulfide-indole-motility (SIM) medium for evaluating the capability of IPA production. A total of 328 clinical strains of tribe Proteeae was used as tested organisms, including 186 Proteus mirabilis strains, 62 Morganella morganii strains, 31 Proteus vulgaris strains, 27 Providencia rettgeri strains, 14 Providencia stuartii and 8 Providencia alcalifaciens strains. Seven different brands of SIM medium used in this study are Kyokuto and Eiken from Japan; Gibco, Difco, Scott and BBL from U.S.A.; as well as Oxoid from England. The results indicate that SIM medium of kyokuto is the most suitable medium for Proteus spp. and Providencia spp. to produce IPA (positive rates are 95.4% and 93.0%, respectively) but not for Morganella morganii (16.1%). Eiken, Gibco and BBL SIM medium are only good for Providencia spp. to produce IPA (positive rates are 95.5%, 85.1% and 87.8%, respectively). Take account the tribe Proteeae the best SIM medium to detect IPA production was from Kyokuto (80%) and the worst was Oxoid (0.3%). Since SIM medium can constantly detect the production of H2S, the relationship between H2S and IPA was analyzed. We found that there is no obvious interaction between these two characters. Production of phenylalanine deaminase (PD) is one of the important characters for tribe Proteeae. We compared PD and IPA positive rates of each members and found that the ability to produce PD and IPA is almost identical for each member in tribe Proteeae except Morganella morganii.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
