Potential Applicability of Nonclonogenic Measurements to Clinical Oncology

Abstract

A number of assays are currently under evaluation for their potential usefulness in the selection of new chemotherapeutic agents or as predictive indicators for use in the design of optimal cancer treatment. Assays fall under the general categories of tumor cell survival, treatment-induced cellular damage, and determination of inherent tumor factors which includes tumor cell kinetics, tumor oxygenation, and measurement of specific biochemical systems. While technical advances to optimize these assays are continuing, possible inter- and intra-tumor cell variability to anticancer treatment modalities may complicate the interpretation and subsequent use of these assays. Regardless of their ultimate usefulness as clinical predictors, these assays will be extremely valuable in better characterizing and understanding the cell biology and biochemistry of human malignancies.

Induction of micronuclei and chromosomal aberrations by the mycotoxin patulin in mammalian cells: role of ascorbic acid as a modulator of patulin clastogenicity

“…After a total of 72 h culture, cells were harvested by centrifugation, treated (Mitchell, 1988) from the seven donors studied. The micronucleated cells including (CAIG) and excluding gaps (CAEG) as well as the increased significantly and in a dose-response manner for the MI are presented.…”

Macrocyclic copper(II) complexes: Superoxide scavenging activity, structural studies and cytotoxicity evaluation

“…In this method, MTT is converted by mitochondrial enzymes of viable cells into a formazan which can be measured at 595 nm. The absorbance is proportional to the number of viable cells [31]. In our experimental protocol, approximately 5 · 10 3 cells were cultured in 200 ll of culture medium per well in 96-well plates and incubated at 37°C under a 5% CO 2 atmosphere.…”

A correlation between nuclear supercoiling and the response of patients with bladder cancer to radiotherapy

“…A variation in DNA loop size would allow those nucleoids with the largest loops to give the greatest expansion when induced to relax by radiation damage (Olive et al, 1986). Alternatively, the loops may be of similar size, but the strength of their attachment to the core protein matrix may differ (Mullenders et al, 1983). In this case, those nucleoids with the weakest attachment may show an enhanced relaxation after radiation exposure by the formation of large loops in vitro, due to the parting of multiple loops from the nuclear matrix.…”

“…A method of predicting the radiation response of each patient would allow the identification of those patients who may not benefit from first line radiotherapy in both this and other tumours where a similar dilemma exists. For this reason, a substantial effort is being made to design analytical techniques which may predict tumour response (Mitchell, 1988).…”