Several methods have been and are in use for assessing the in vitro sensitivity and resistance of an individual woman's tumor cells. We report the predictive accuracy of an optimized chemoresponsiveness test.
Patients and methods: In a retrospective chart review of 18 women with late stage, papillary serous ovarian cancer undergoing 21 episodes of chemotherapy, we assessed the correlation between the results of this test, the ChemoFx Assays, and clinical response.
Results: The positive predictive value of the ChemoFx Assay was 63.6% and the negative predictive value was 100%. Survival curves among women with good vs. poor response on the chemoresponse test showed an early, albeit non-significant survival advantage among women whose tumors tested sensitive to the chemotherapeutic regimens used.
Conclusion: This study suggests that optimized chemoresponse assays may be beneficial in selecting specific chemotherapy regimens for women with ovarian cancer.