Assay of anti-cancer drugs in tissue culture: conditions affecting their ability to incorporate 3H-leucine after drug treatment.

An attempt has been made to construct an assay potentially suitable for use with primary cultures of human tumours to measure the survival of exponentially growing monolayer cultures after exposure to anti-neoplastic drugs. Cell survival was assessed using their protein synthetic capacity after removal of drugs. HeLa cells were employed to avoid the ingerent variability and heterogeneity of primary cultures from human tumours, and an assay has been constructed using microtitration trays to provide large numbers of replicate cultures without the requirement of a large number cells. An increase in the duration of the exposure to drug increased sensitivity in nearly all cases examined. Similarly, an increase in the period of culture following drug removal produced increased sensitivity to alkylating agents but allowed recovery from exposure to certain cycle-dependent drugs. Some of the drugs used were shown to be unstable under culture conditions and vinblastine was actively metabolized, although this instability was not necessarily reflected in the time course of the drug's effect. Mustine sensitivity was shown to be reduced by an increase in cell density at a level where density limitation of 3H-thymidine incorporation becomes apparent. These variations and possible methods of minimizing their effects are discussed.