Primary and metastatic liver lesions of clinical colorectal cancer differ in chemosensitivity.

The succinate dehydrogenase inhibition (SDI) test was used to examine eight pairs of samples obtained simultaneously from primary colorectal cancers and metastatic liver lesions. The chemosensitivity of the metastatic lesions to six antitumour drugs, carboquone (CQ), adriamycin (ADM), mitomycin C (MMC), aclacinomycin A (ACR), cisplatin (DDP), and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), differed from that of the primary lesions - the metastatic lesions were less sensitive to all these drugs. There were no correlations of chemosensitivities between the primary and the metastatic lesions (r = -0.4331-0.4857). Thus, in patients with liver metastasis from a primary colorectal cancer, treatment with these drugs may not be so effective. When selecting antitumour drugs for metastatic liver lesions of colorectal cancer, the chemosensitivity of the primary tumour should first be assessed.