What is a cell drug resistance assay?
A cell drug resistance assay is sometimes called a clonogenic assay. This is a lab test performed on a biopsy specimen containing living cancer cells. The specimen, which may be tissue, blood, bone marrow, or malignant fluid, is transported in a special transport medium to one of the laboratories in the country which does this test. In lay language, the lab tests to see whether the tumor cells will continue to live and/or grow in the presence of various chemotherapy drugs. Depending on how well the tumor cells live/grow or fail to live/grow, each chemotherapy is rated as sensitive, resistant or intermediate. The concept here is that you are better off using a chemotherapy drug that your tumor reacts to strongly than one your tumor resists. The practice of cell drug resistance assays is not standard for several reasons. The assay is chiefly useful for suggesting unusual combinations of chemotherapy which may not be among those commonly used for a particular cancer. Simply because of the
