Objective: To determine the chemosensitivity in fresh biopsy specimen of human oral and maxillofacial cancer, and the differential chemosensitivity among those drugs used popularly in clinic.
Methods: Human biopsy cancer cells were obtained from 150 oral and maxillofacial malignant tumors. The antitumor drugs tested using modified MTT assay were cisplatin (CDDP), 5-fluorouracil (5-Fu), Pinyangmycin (PYM), Paclitaxel (Taxol), Teniposide (Vm-26), Epi-adriamycin (E-ADM), Vindesin (VDS) and Methortrexatum (MTX).
Results: The success rate of the MTT assay was 93.33% (140 of the 150 cases). At a drug concentration of Cmax x 5, the inhibition rates of oral tumor cells were 63.76% for Vm-26, 25.93% for CDDP, 25.86% for E-ADM, 23.52% for Taxol, 22.97% for PYM, 22.08% for 5-Fu, 18.42% for VDS and 18.93% for MTX. The inhibition rate of VM26 was significantly higher than any of other seven chemotherapeutic drugs (P < 0.05). Over forty percent patients with squamous cell carcinoma showed moderate chemosensitivity to VM-26, CDDP and E-ADM, and over forty percent cases with adenoid carcinoma showed moderate chemosensitivity to Vm-26, Taxol and E-ADM.
Conclusions: Most oral and maxillofacial cancers showed chemosensitivity to Vm-26, CDDP, E-ADM and Taxol. Vm-26, E-ADM and Taxol were more potent drugs than VDS, 5-Fu and MTX against oral and maxillofacial cancer cells. Chemosensitivity testing using modified MTT assay was useful in selecting antitumor drugs for patients with oral and maxillofacial cancers.