Abstract
Background: Clinical and experimental observations indicate that resistance to anticancer drugs may be spontaneously reversible over time. Materials and Methods: This work is a mathematical and statistical analysis of the relationship, during a 9-month experiment, between the resistance of repeatedly re-seeded hepatoma cells to methotrexate (MTX) or to cisplatin (cisP) and untreated cell proliferation, telomere length and telomerase activity. Results: All variables showed complex oscillations, as previously published. In this work, cell proliferation was modelized by the logistic model, and the proliferation rates (a-values) together with their variations (va-values) were calculated. Conclusion: Significant correlations were discovered between cell resistance to treatments and a-values, va-values, telomere length and telomerase activities. These results open new insights into the handling of chemotherapy in the treatment of cancers.
Footnotes
- Received March 30, 2005.
- Accepted June 16, 2005.
- Copyright© 2005 International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. John G. Delinassios), All rights reserved