Abstract
The detection of multidrug resistance (MDR) in clinical hospital practice represents an important strategy to combat clinical tumor drug resistance. Predicting the response of tumors to cytostatic drugs is of prognostic value. The ‘Debate Round-Table on Phenotypic and Genotypic Analyses of Multidrug Resistance (MDR) in Clinical Hospital Practice’ was launched in 1997 to address specific questions on this topic. The results published thus far are a rich source to learn about the promises and pitfalls of methods, eg surrogate and functional tests and protein or mRNA expression assays as well. In the present paper, some requirements are discussed for applications of drug resistance testing in clinical routine diagnostics. To improve the detection of low-level resistance, established methodologies may be strengthened with respect to: (1) standardization of sample handling, antibodies, PCR primers, and detection reagents; (2) standardization of protocols and far reaching automation in performance and evaluation of results to ensure high quality control criteria. Sophisticated new techniques will feature: (1) high-throughput analyses for the ‘horizontal screening’ of single drug resistance genes in large numbers of patient samples at economically fair costs; (2) ‘vertical screening’ of a large number of resistance mechanisms operating upstream or downstream of the actual drug–target interaction sites, in order to detect more complex and multifaceted genotypes and phenotypes of multidrug resistance.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Efferth, T. Testing for tumor drug resistance in the age of molecular medicine. A contribution to the Debate Round-Table on phenotypic and genotypic analyses of multidrug resistance (MDR) in clinical hospital practice. Leukemia 13, 1627–1629 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2401551
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2401551
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
Polo-like kinase 1 as target for cancer therapy
Experimental Hematology & Oncology (2012)