In vivo cultivation of tumor cells in hollow fibers.

Advancement of potential anti-cancer agents from "discovery" in an in vitro screen to pre-clinical development requires a demonstration of in vivo efficacy in one or more animal models of neoplastic disease. Most such models require considerable materials in terms of laboratory animals and test compound as well as substantial amounts of time (and cost) to determine whether a given experimental agent or series of agents have even minimal anti-tumor activity. The present study was initiated to assess the feasibility of employing an alternate methodology for preliminary in vivo evaluations of therapeutic efficacy. Results of experimentation to date demonstrate that a hollow fiber encapsulation/implantation methodology provides quantitative indices of drug efficacy with minimum expenditures of time and materials. Following further pharmacologic calibrations, the hollow fiber technique is anticipated (a) to identify compounds having moderate to prominent anti-cancer activity and (b) to facilitate the identification of sensitive tumor cell line "targets" and optimal or near-optimal treatment regimens for subsequent testing using standard in vivo solid tumor models. The potential suitability of this methodology is demonstrated with several standard anti-neoplastic agents.