Clonogenic survival studies of human colon tumor cell lines in vitro: combined hyperthermia, 5-fluorouracil/leucovorin, carboplatin and tumor necrosis factor.

The responses of DLD-1 and HCT-15 human colon adenocarcinoma cells to hyperthermia, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)/leucovorin, carboplatin and tumor necrosis factor-alpha, singly and in multiple combinations, were evaluated in clonogenic assays. The combination of hyperthermia with the lower dose combination resulted in a survival fraction of about 0.005 to 0.001 for both cell types, whereas estimated additive interactions alone would have resulted in a survival fraction of about 0.5 (DLD-1) or 0.05 (HCT-15). A survival fraction of 0.00001 or greater was observed when the higher dose levels were combined with hyperthermia, whereas additive interactions alone would have achieved a decrease of only 0.001 or 0.0001 in the surviving fraction. The combination of the three other modalities at either dose level under conditions of hyperthermia or normothermia achieved statistically significant apparently supra-additive losses of clonogenicity in HCT-15 cells; similar results were obtained with the lower dose level in DLD-1 cells. Our results suggest that human colon tumor cells are markedly sensitive to this combination of modalities when used at clinically achievable dose levels.