Over the past 50 years many in vitro and in vivo drug response assay systems have been developed to determine the potential - tivity of chemotherapy agents. The idea was to eliminate ineffective agents and unnecessary toxic treatment while selecting drugs active in vitro or in the mouse model that might increase the probability of response in the patient. None of these test models, however, achieved routine clinical application in the past. This might be at least in part - lated to large discrepancies that were described between the s- cess rate of the assay systems and the clinical benefit in cancer - tients. The heterogeneity of chemosensitivity that exists between different tumors as well as between individual tumor lesions may be one explanation for these findings. Furthermore, different assay end points such as proliferation, metabolism, and vitality were - veloped to evaluate the effects of cytostatic drugs on tumor cells, and these might be related to the differing results. However, knowledge about procedures for assay-assisted treatment selection has increased rapidly within the past few years, and several studies suggest that test-directed chemotherapy selection now may - prove response rates and survival in various types of tumors. The International Society for Chemosensitivity Testing in - cology (ISCO) was founded to promote, coordinate, and improve clinical and laboratory research in the field of predictive drug te- ing in human tumor cells.

1 In Vitro Drug Testing Methods: Recent Developments

Luminescence Applications for Chemotherapeutic Drug Development
The Use of the MTT Assay to Study Drug Resistance in Fresh Tumour Samples
Chemosensitivity Testing of Human Tumors Using Si-sensor Chips
Multiparametric Sensor Chips for Chemosensitivity Testing of Sensitive and Resistant Tumor Cells
Development of New In Vitro Chemosensitivity Test Using Collagen Gel Droplet Embedded Culture and Image Analysis for Clinical Usefulness
In Vitro Chemosensitivity Testing of Hematological Cancer Patients: Detection of Ornithine Decarboxylase
2 Tumor Chemosensitivity Assays: Evaluation of In Vitro Results
The Chemosensitivity Profile of Retinoblastoma
Chemosensitivity Testing in Malignant Melanoma
Human Melanoma: Drug Resistance
Cisplatin, Doxorubicin and Paclitaxel Induce mdr1 Gene Transcription in Ovarian Cancer Cell Lines
3 Clinical Relevance of Tumor-Directed Therapy
Chemosensitivity Testing as an Aid to Anti-Cancer Drug and Regimen Development
Assay-Assisted Treatment Selection for Women with Breast or Ovarian Cancer
Chemosensitivity Testing in Gynecologic Oncology - Dream or Reality?
Treosulfan in the Treatment of Metastatic Melanoma: From Chemosensitivity Testing to Clinical Trials
Chemosensitivity Testing and Test-Directed Chemotherapy in Human Pancreatic Cancer
Clinical Significance of Cellular Drug Resistance in Childhood Leukemia
ATP Chemosensitivity Testing in Ovarian and Breast Cancer: Early Clinical Trials
Chemosensitivity Testing - Present and Future in Japan.