The effect of an hypoxic cell sensitizer on tumour growth delay and cell survival. Implications for cell survival in situ and in vitro.

A comparison has been made of the effects of the 2-nitroimidazole Ro-07-0582 on tumour growth delay after irradiation and tumour cell survival in vitro after irradiation in vivo. This compound has previously been shown to be a specific sensitizer of hypoxic cells. A dose of 1 mg/g body weight gave an enhancement ratio of 2-2 for both growth delay and cell survival in a system where high pressure oxygen has been shown to have no effect. However, while the hypoxic fraction in the tumour was estimated to be less then 10% from the growth delay curves, the survival curves gave a value in excess of 50%. This discrepancy probably reflects differences in the response of cells left in situ or removed and assayed in vitro.