We tested the in vitro sensitivity of 170 primary breast carcinoma samples to the anti-cancer drugs conventionally used in clinical chemotherapy. It was found that: 1. The high sensitivity rate (HSR) of breast carcinoma cells to 5-fluorouracil (5-Fu), mitomycin (MMC), cisplatin (DDP), adriamycin(ADM), methotrexate(MTX), vincristin(VCR), vepesid(VP-16), taxol, and vindesine(VDS) were 57.1%, 49.4%, 48.3%, 35.8%, 21.8%, 21.2%, 10%, 18.2% and 20.9%, respectively. The increase of HSR of cancer cells to 5-Fu, MMC, DDP, taxol was more significant than that of the other drugs tested (P < 0.05). 2. No correlation was shown between drug sensitivity and factors, i.e. pathological type, clinical type, expression of estrogen receptor (ER) and epithelium growth factor receptor(EGFR) for breast carcinoma (P > 0.05). 3. Cyclosporin A can increase part of the sensitivity of ADM-resistant breast carcinoma cells to ADM.

Whether apoptosis induced by cisplatin resulted in tumor growth inhibition and the relationships between apoptosis and cell cycle, intracellular and extracellular Ca++ concentration were investi- gated.

To determine if the topoisomerase I inhibitor Camptothecin (CPT) can induce apoptosis in vitro in a human nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) cell line with low differentiation (CNE-2Z).

To elucidate the inhibited effect and regulated mechanism of IGFBp-1 on the carcinoma cells.

To evaluate the value of ATP spectrophotometry for malignant tumor in vitro chemosensitivity test, Hela and L929 cell lines, which were derived from human cervical carcinoma and mouse fibroma respectively, were investigated. The results showed that when the cellular numbers were > or = 2 x 10(5), the linearity between the ATP concentrations and the cellular numbers was observed, with all 2 cell types studied, and that when L929 cells were incubated with cis-platinum (1x, 2x, 5x x plasma peak concentration, PPC), a marked fall in ATP concentrations was observed and a clear dose-response curve was obtained, but no decrease of ATP concentrations was measured after incubation with adriamycin (1x, 2x, 5x x PPC). This study suggests that ATP spectrophotometry is a cheap, feasible method for studying the energy metabolism and the influence of chemotherapeutic drugs on ATP concentrations of malignant tumor.

By using a panel of short term cell biology assays, several ingredients of tea (tea pigments, caffeine, tea polysaccharide, tea polyphenols tablet and mixed tea) were screened in order to investigate their anticarcinogenic effects. The cytokinesis block micronuclei test in V79 cells induced by mitomycin, the test of metabolic cooperation between V79 and M cells and the test of growth ability of Hela cells in soft agar were used in the screening. The results showed that the six kinds of tea ingredients tested were effective in the test involved in different stages of carcinogenesis, i.e. initiation, promotion and progression. The effects of mixed tea and tea pigments were the strongest among the ingredients tested.

In the mouse study, topical application of green tea polyphenols (GTP) significantly inhibited TPA-induced increasing of epidermal ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) and increased the activities of several antioxidant enzymes (CAT, GR and GST). In another in vitro study, when GTP was incubated with TPA and mice polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs), TPA induced hydrogen peroxide formation was markedly suppressed with a dose-dependent relationship. The results suggest that the antioxidative effect of GTP may play an important role in inhibiting tumor promotion.

Two Kinds of tumor-bearing mice (hepatoma H22 and sarcoma S180) were administered with lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) for 17 or 10 days (advanced and simultaneous administration), in order to observe the effects of prevention and treatment of Li2CO3 on malignant tumor, as well as the relationship between Li2CO3 and lipid peroxidation in tumor-bearing mice. Meanwhile, we compared the toxic and side effects of cyclophosphamide (CP) with that of Li2CO3. The results showed that Li2CO3 had no significant toxic or side effects with the suggested doses. In the tests of inhibition and prevention of tumor, Li2CO3 could significantly inhibit the grouth of the two kinds of tumor, and increase the activity of superoxide dismutage (SOD) and decrease the contents of Malonyldialdehyde (MDA). In addition, Li2CO3 had no effect on the white blood cells (WBC) and decreased the micronucleus frequency (MNF) in bone marrow polychromatic erythrocytes (PCE), while CP had definite effect of decreasing the WBC and increasing the MNF in the tumor-bearing mice.

To elucidate the patterns of chemotherapeutic drugs induced apoptosis and its role in cancer chemotherapy.

This study was designed to investigate the effects of dibutyl phthalate (DBP) on the proliferation and apoptosis of leukemic cells. The results showed that DBP suppressed the proliferation of HL-60 and K562 leukemic cells in a dose-dependent and time-dependent manner. Inducing HL-60 and K562 leukemic cells to die via apoptosis were confirmed by that the percentage of the apoptotic cells in morphology and of the DNA fragmentation increased significantly and that typical ladders of apoptosis were shown by gel electrophoresis when HL-60 and K562 cells were exposed to the DBP. Also, K562 leukemic cells was less susceptible to the DBP than HL-60 cells. These results indicate that DBP can inhibit the proliferation of HL-60 and K562 leukemic cells and induced them to die via apoptosis.

To investigate the inhibitory activity and the effective concentration of daunomycin against the proliferation of lens epithelial cells in vitro, and make progress in pharmacological prevention of posterior capsule opacification.

With the same forage to the mice, three experiments were done. The control group took water and experimental group took 1% taurine. 1. After the mice were vaccinated with S180 sarcoma, every group was further divided into two groups, one treated with cytoxan (CTX), another one treated with nothing. The survival period, weight of the tumor and the tumor inhibition rate were investigated. The result shows: The survival period of the group fed with taurine was (35.75 +/- 23.7) days longer than that of the control group (18.7 +/- 5.6) days, and the tumor inhibition rate was 42.26%. The mice fed with taurine and treated with CTX survived to 61 days with no death, and no tumor could be seen grossly, so the tumor inhibition rate is 100%. The survival period and weight of the tumor were not different between the CTX treated and control groups. 2. Tumor cell membrane fluidity was observed after the mice were vaccinated with Erlish ascitic tumor. The result shows: in the taurine group, the fluorescence polarization (p) is 0.108 +/- 0.020, the viscosity (eta) is 0.618 +/- 0.140 and in the control group p is 0.139 +/- 0.20, eta is 0.874 +/- 0.150, respectively. Thus the cell membrane fluidity of the taurine group is also obviously better than that of the control group (P < 0.01). 3. The immune functions of the two groups were determined by carbon clearance test and capacity of serum hemolysin. The immune function of the taurine group is also obviously higher than that of control group (P < 0.01). All the results described above show:taurine is functioning for tumor inhibition, and has obvious synergic effect while treated with CTX as chemotherophy. It is considered that the tumor inhibit function of taurine may be related to its effects of immune enhancing and membrane profecting.

To study the effect of low-molecular-weight Rehmannia glutinosa polysaccharides (LRPS) on p53 gene expression.

C57/BL6J mice were inoculated with Lewis lung cancer cells as an experimental model to study the effects of green tea on cancer prevention, inhibition of tumor growth and immune regulation in mice with tumor. Results showed that weight of thymus in C57/BL6J mice and its index declined, proportion of positive CD4 subgroup of T lymphocyte and ratio of CD4+, to CD8+ reduced, baseline chemilumi-nescence decreased in peripheral white blood cells, yeast zymosan stimulated chemiluminescence increased, and number of immunoglobulin M formation cells decreased. It indicated that green tea had obvious inhibition in Lewis lung cancer and protective effects, to various extent, on adverse changes of above indices.

To investigate the effect of C1027, an enediyne antitumor antibiotic, on angiogenesis and its anti-metastatic activity.

To study the relation between the PML-RAR alpha gene and the effects of ATRA on proliferation and differentiation in acute promyelocytic leukemia cell line NB4 cells.

60 cancer patients during chemotherapy were investigated by using case-control study. 30 of them were recruited as the experiment group and given biofeedback relaxation training, the others were controls. Both of the two groups were assessed with SCL-90 and questionnaire on physical reactions. Results showed that no significant difference was found between the average scores of SCL-90 (including F1, F3, F4, F5, F10) of the two groups before the intervention. However, lower average scores and less serious physical reactions (4 of the 6 items) were seen from the experiment group after the intervention. It is indicated that biofeedback relaxation training is effective in alleviating patient's unhealthy psychosomatic reactions during chemotherapy.

Recent studies indicate that wild-type p53 can trigger cell apoptosis induced by many chemotherapeutic agents which induce DNA damage or cause disruptions of DNA metabolism, such as ADM, 5-FU, VP-16 and radiation. We introduced the wild-type p53 gene into a MDR cell line KBV200 in which the endogenous p53 was found to be rearranged. By G418 selection and Northern blot analysis, a G418-resistant clone named KBV200-p53 was obtained which continuously expressed the exogenous wild-type p53 mRNA. After treatment with Vincristine(VCR), the wild type p53-expression cells presented typical morphology characteristic of apoptosis analysed under electron and fluorescence microscopes. Flow cytometer analysis showed that the KBV200-p53 cells were more readily undergo apoptosis than their parental cells KBV200. After treatment with VCR 600 nmol.L-1 for 24 h, the apoptotic percentage of KBV200-p53 and KBV200 cells was about 42.4% and 8.4%, respectively. This result indicates that wild-type p53 stimulates VCR-induced apoptosis in KBV200 cells.