Klin Onkol 2000; 13(Speciál2 2000): 43-48.
Summary: Thirty-four abdominal and twenty-four pleural effusions were tested for the presence of malignant cells to examine the possibility of using isolated malignant cells to guide the treatment of oncology patients. Malignant cells were cytologically confirmed in 25% of the examined effusions. A method to isolate these cells devoid of benign cells was developed. The in vitro MTT chemoresistance test of cells to cytostatic agents was performed with cells from 11 abdominal and 6 pleural effusions where sufficient number of cells was obtained to conduct the test. The tests helped improve the method and find the concentrations of cytostatics that were efficient in vitro. Preliminary results show that the in vitro sensitivity/resistance of malignant cells to cytostatic agents is case-dependent and depends on the stage of the disease and previous treatment of the patient. The method will be used to study the correlation between the in vitro response of isolated malignant cells to cytostatics and the response of a patient to the same drugs.
