Evaluation of antitumour effects of docetaxel (Taxotere) on human gastric cancers in vitro and in vivo.

In vitro antitumour effects of docetaxel (Taxotere) were examined in nine cultured human gastric cancer cell lines and 18 clinical gastric cancer specimens. In vivo antitumour effects were examined in human gastric cancer xenografts in nude mice. The activity was compared with paclitaxel (Taxol). Docetaxel was more effective than paclitaxel in six of the nine cell lines and the effectiveness rates of docetaxel and paclitaxel were 56% (10/18) and 6% (1/17), respectively, in the clinical gastric cancer specimens. In vivo docetaxel showed superior antitumour effect on well differentiated (MKN-28), poorly differentiated (MKN-45) and undifferentiated (KKLS) gastric cancer xenografts. We conclude that docetaxel promises to be clinically active against gastric carcinomas.