Evaluation of anthracycline-anthraquinone analogues in the treatment of lung cancer using colony assay Part 1. Comparison of antitumor activity of anthracycline-anthraquinone analogues in human lung cancer cell lines

In an attempt to evaluate the antitumor activity of new anthracycline-anthraquinone analogues ; aclarubicin (ACR), tetrahydropyranyl adriamycin (THP-ADM), and mitoxantrone(MIT), these analogues were compared with adriamycin(ADM) in terms of 70% lethal dose by colony assay using five human lung cancer cell lines, which had been established and maintained in our laboratory. The human lung cancer cell lines tested were EBC-1, an epidermoid cancer cell line, ABC-1, an adenocarcinoma cell line, and SBC-1, -2, and -3, small cell cancer cell lines. In general, the EBC-1 established from a patient tumor showing resistance to ADM was the least sensitive to the drugs tested, and SBC-3 established from a patient tumor with no prior chemotherapy was the most sensitive to the drugs. In antitumor activity, both ACR and THP-ADM appeared to be superior to ADM and MIT, suggesting the clinical usefulness of these drugs in the treatment of lung cancer.