[Comparative study of chemosensitivity tests of human urogenital tumors between a clonogenic assay and a novel dye exclusion test].

There is a need for chemosensitivity tests of human tumors to become simpler and to have a better correspondence with their therapeutical record. We examined and compared two chemosensitivity tests in vitro. One was a clonogenic assay performed using a double agar system and the other was a novel dye exclusion method that was a modification of the traditional dye exclusion method of Weisenthal. Cultured cells and surgical speciners of urogenital tumors were used for the present experiments. Comparison of chemosensitivity between the clonogenic assay and the novel dye exclusion test resulted in a similar dose response for each, and both tests were suitable not only for cultured cells but also surgical speciners. Among surgical speciners, 17 of 25 cases (68%) tested by clonogenic assay and 8 of 11 cases (73%) tested by novel dye exclusion test were successful in detecting drug sensitivity. Renal cell carcinomas had higher plating efficiency and showed a higher success rate in the clonogenic assay than any other urogenital tumors. On the other hand, the novel dye exclusion method depended on tumor cell growth in suspension culture. Among 11 cases on which both the clonogenic assay and the novel dye exclusion method were performed, only in one case was there failure to estimate drug sensitivity. Therefore, more successful results in examining the chemosensitivity of urogenital tumors might be expected by using both the clonogenic assay and the novel dye exclusion method.