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A B S T R A C T Experiments were made to investigate the effect of four anesthetic drugs that are commonly used in surgical practice on the postoperative growth of mouse tumors in syngeneic recipients. These experiments revealed that some of the anesthetics when applied for surgical excision ofthe local tumor, strongly accelerated postoperative progression of spontaneous lung metastases produced by the 3LL Lewis lung carcinoma and by the B16 melanoma. Some of the drugs caused the appearance of metastases in organs, such as the liver, in which spontaneous metastases are not usually produced by these tumors. A T10 sarcoma clone that does not produce detectable metastases in immune intact mice even following intravenous injection, did produce metastases when injected into animals treated with pentothal sodium.

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In vitro drug sensitivity assays have been developed with the goal of predicting the clinical response to chemotherapy. The colony-forming assay, radiolabeled precursor inhibition assay, and microcytotoxicity assay are most commonly used. In retrospective studies, the assays correctly predict clinical response to a chemotherapeutic agent in 50% to 70% of patients and predict clinical resistance in nearly 100% of patients. All of the assays suffer from technical and theoretical problems. In vitro assays depend on cell culture and therefore do not entirely simulate in vivo conditions. Heterogeneity in chemosensitivity is commonly found and can complicate the interpretation of results. Further investigation is needed to determine if these assays will be able to select prospective chemotherapy for patients. The malignant origin of the cells in culture must be verified if meaningful conclusions are to be made.

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