Comparative survival in tissue culture of normal and neoplastic human cells exposed to adriamycin.

SUMMARY In an effort to develop an in vitro predictive test for the clinical usefulness of adriamycin, we have grown human cells derived from normal tissue (skin, muscle, and Girardi heart cells) and human neoplastic cells in tissue culture and exposed them to varying concentrations of adriamycin for 1, 24, 48, and 72 hr. Cardiac cells were extremely sensitive to adriamycin; lesser degrees of inhibition were seen in order of decreasing sensitivity by sarcoma and melanoma cells, normal muscle, and normal skin fibroblasts. The relative sensitivity of tissues correlated in a general way with clinical experience; however, the in vitro test results in two patients treated with adriamycin did not correlate with their clinical course. Although our findings in vitro were not useful clinically, we suggest that further study of human cardiac cells in tissue culture may improve our understanding of adriamycin cardiotoxicity.