The succinate dehydrogenase inhibition test for evaluating biopsy specimens and resected tumors of advanced gastric cancer.

An in vitro chemosensitivity study of both biopsy specimens and surgically resected tumors of advanced gastric cancer from 12 patients was evaluated using the succinate dehydrogenase inhibition (SDI) test. A decrease in succinate dehydrogenase (SD) activity as an indicator of chemosensitivity was determined using cisplatin (CDDP), etoposide (VP-16), and mitomycin C (MMC). In this study, 29 of a total 36 experiments were evaluable (80.6%) and significant correlations were found in all three of the antitumor drugs (P < 0.03). This finding suggests that the SDI test using biopsy specimens may prove valuable for assessing the preoperative chemosensitivity of advanced gastric cancer.