Representative findings:

Conclusions: There is a clear relationship between platinum resistance and tumor differentiation. Poorly-differentiated tumors are, on average, significantly more sensitive to platinums than are well-differentiated tumors. In contrast, Taxol resistance is not related to tumor differentiation.  In the absence of CCDRT, single agent platinum may be the most appropriate first line chemotherapy for poorly-differentiated tumors, while platinum/Taxol may be more appropriate for well-differentiated tumors. (nb: It should also be recalled that the original American cooperative group trials of platinum versus non-platinum combination therapy showed that the main group of patients who benefited from platinum were patients with poorly-differentiated tumors. This fits very nicely with the above data).

Conclusions: Platinum resistance determined by CCDRT predicts for long-term patient outcome.

Copyright 2003 Weisenthal Cancer Group