Study Of The Differences Of Breast Cancer Chemosensitivity In Vitro By ATP Bioluminescence Assay

Objective: ATP-based bioluminescence tumor chemosensitivity assay is one of the most prevalent chemosensitivity testing technology in recent years. In this pilot study, we attempt to sift appropriate chemotherapeutic agents out for breast cancer cells in vitro by ATP-TCA, which can provide experimental evidence for individual chemotherapy for breast cancer patients. Simultaneously analyze the relationship between the effective rate of chemotherapeutic agents in vitro and patients with different pathological expression.Materials and methods: The study included 35 women with breast cancer who were subjected to modified radical mastectomy. All patients were initially treated, without adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Tumor tissue were cultured with 9 kinds of chemotherapeutic agents at respective peak plasma concentration with three repeats for 3-5 days. The inhibition rate of the samples was measured by ATP bioluminescence assay. All specimens were assessed the expression of ER,PR,HER-2 with immunohistochemistry.Results: 32 of 35 assays were completed successfully with ATP-TCA,with a evaluability rate of 91.4%. The assay results suggested that 32 specimens from different breast cancer patients responded to chemotherapeutic drugs with individualized profiles. The most effective drugs in the experiment were Adriamycin , and then Docetaxel,Paclitaxel,Vinorelbine,5-Fluorouracil,Cis-platinum and Gemcitabine, the rates of chemosensitivity of which were 81.2%,68.8%,59.4%,43.8%,34.4%,31.2% and25%. While Methotrexate and Etoposide(VP-16) were almost weakly active or resistive(0&12.5%). The effective rate of Adriamycin was associated with the overexpression of HER-2 in vitro(100% vs 68.4%,p ﹤0.05), but for other drugs,the expression of ER,PR,HER-2 were not associated with the effective rate in vitro.Conclusion: There were considerable differences and heterogeneity of the chemosensitivity in vitro among individuals in breast cancer. It is taxane and anthracycline which has the higher inhibition rate for tumor cells. There are no correlations between different hormone receptor expression and the effective rate of chemotherapy drugs, but for those who have the HER-2 over-expression can be considered to use anthracycline chemotherapeutic agents.