Experience with the colony-forming (stem cell) assay of in vitro chemosensitivity in the management of patients with advanced malignant melanoma.

Twenty-two patients with advanced malignant melanoma had tumor nodules biopsied and tumor cell colonies established in vitro in the colony-forming assay in the presence of vindesine. The patients then received iv vindesine at a dose of 3 mg/m2/week for 6 weeks. In four patients, in vitro death of cells exposed to vindesine in vitro correlated with clinical response to therapy. In the remaining 18 patients, lack of both in vitro and clinical response was noted.