BACKGROUND: Utilizing the MTT chemosensitivity test to evaluated the action of chemotherapeutic agents on cancer cells of 30 patients with advanced gastric cancer who underwent surgical treatment. Correlation between test results, clinical and anatomopathological aspects, disease staging, were dane using the same methodology of study performed in Japanese patients presented in master dissertation. METHODS: MTT test was carried out in cancer cells of 30 patients with gastric adenocarcinoma submitted to surgical treatment in the Department of Surgery at Santa Casa de São Paulo, Medical School. The following drugs were studied in vitro: mitomycin C, doxorubicin, cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil. RESULTS: Efficacy rates on tumors cells were reported as being: 16.6% for mitomycin C, 10.0 % for doxorubicin, 6.6% for cisplatin and 6.6% for 5-fluorouracil. There were no statistically significant correlations between chemosensitivity and age, sex, microscopic aspect and disease staging (p0.05). CONCLUSION: The effect of the studied chemotherapeutical drugs on gastric cancer cell cultivated in vitro is low. The results of chemotherapy effect in vitro proved no statistical correlation with age, sex, microscopic aspect and disease staging of these patients. Using the same methodology in our patients (non oriental) or in Japanese patients the chemosensitivity was low in both studies. We can conclude that no matter which race is studied it will get the same low response results of chemosensitivity. With development of new chemotherapeutics agents the expectation is greater for better results in clinical practice. With the utilization and the spread of the MTT chemosensitivity test in our patients it will be possible to create protocols and multicentric studies for selection of new chemotherapeutic agents.
Stomach Neoplasms; Chemotherapy, adjuvant; Adenocarcinoma; Drug screening assays; antitumor
