Cytostatic drug effects on human clonogenic tumor cells and human bone marrow progenitor cells (CFU-C) in vitro.

Human tumor cells from a squamous cell carcinoma of the lung and from a malignant melanoma and human bone marrow progenitor cells were cultured in a methylcellulose monolayer system. To obtain tumor material for repeated experiments with human tumor specimens, human xenografts grown in the nude mouse system were used. The cultures were incubated continuously with adriamycin, actinomycin-D, bleomycin, cisplatinum, and melphalan. Dose response curves for bone marrow and tumor cell colonies were established. A comparison of bone marrow and tumor cell colony dose response curves might be useful for the assessment of the drug sensitivity of tumor cells independent of in vivo pharmacologic data and duration of drug exposure.