Head and neck carcinoma cell lines are sensitive to vinflunine in vitro.

BACKGROUND New treatment models are needed for the management of advanced stage head and neck carcinomas (HNSCC). Vinflunine is a novel vinca alkaloid which has shown remarkable improvement in efficiency and reduced side-effects in both in vitro and in vivo studies. Better locoregional control and prevention of distant metastasis in advanced HNSCC would be welcome and, with this new efficient compound, these might be expected. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the sensitivity of HNSCC cell lines to vinflunine in vitro. MATERIALS AND METHODS Nine recently established cell lines were used: UT-SCC-1A, -2 and -33 (oral cavity SCC), UT-SCC-40 (tongue SCC), UT-SCC-9, -11, -19A, -29 and -34 (laryngeal SCC). Cells in midlogarithmic growth were used in the 96-well plate clonogenic assay. Vinflunine was tested using two 96-well plates for each concentration, the experiments were repeated 4-6 times. The plating efficiency was calculated, the survival data was fit to the linear quadratic equation F = exp[-(alphaD + betaD2)] and IC50 corresponding to the mean inactivation dose, were obtained from the dose response curves. RESULTS All tested cell lines were sensitive to vinflunine in nanomolar concentrations. The IC50 values of the same cell lines to vinorelbine were only slightly lower, with means of 0.96 nM and 0.73 nM, respectively. CONCLUSION These results indicate that the new vinca alkaloid, vinflunine, could be useful in the clinical setting, and in vitro testing in combined modality models, such as concurrent chemoradiation, is warranted.