Clonogenic cell assay for carcinoma of the lung.

Studies were performed with a clonogenic cell assay system to determine the in vitro sensitivity of carcinoma of the lung to standard chemotherapeutic drugs. Formation of colonies in vitro occurred in 22 of 29 specimens (76%), including 4 of 7 squamous cell carcinomas, 11 of 16 adenocarcinomas, all of 3 large cell carcinomas, and none of 3 small cell carcinomas. Eighteen of these 22 assays (82%) showed growth which was adequate for chemosensitivity testing. Antitumor drugs tested in this study were cis-diamminedichloroplatinum, 5-fluorouracil, adriamycin, mitomycin C, vindesine, vincristine, vinblastine, bleomycin, peplomycin and l-phenylalanine mustard, which are used clinically for chemotherapy of lung cancer. Of ten drugs tested against at least two different tumors, vindesine and mitomycin C were identified as being active against more than three tumors (17%). Twelve of 18 specimens (67%) were not sensitive in vitro to any of the drugs tested. Of the remaining 6 specimens (33%) showing sensitivity to any drug, four tumors were sensitive to only one drug, one tumor was sensitive to three drugs and another was sensitive to four drugs. The in vitro chemosensitivity results seemed well correlated with clinical experience. The human tumor clonogenic cell assay system appears to be a reasonable model for the study of chemosensitivity in carcinoma of the lung.