Objective: To explore the feasibility of the adenosine triphosphate-tumor chemosensitivity assay (ATP-TCA) in human cervical cancer chemosensitivity testing and to analyze the relationship between the three drug resistance-associated proteins: P-glycoprotein (P-gp); glutathione S-transferase-pi (GST-pi); thymidylate synthase (TS) and ATP-TCA.
Methods: ATP-TCA was used to detect the sensitivity of 35 specimens of fresh cervical cancer to six cytotoxic drugs as follows: paclitaxel (TAX), cisplatin (DDP), bleomycin (BLM), gemcitabine (GEM), 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), irinotecan (CPT-11). Consecutive sections from 35 cases of cervical cancer were assessed immunohistochemically for expression of P-gp, GST-pi and TS proteins.