Differential Effect of Myleran on Two Normal Haemopoietic Progenitor Cell Populations

Abstract

MANY of the differential effects of cytotoxic agents used in cancer chemotherapy have been attributed to differences between the proliferation rate of normal and tumour cells^1,2. When certain closely related tumour cell lines are compared, however, the differences in sensitivity to cytotoxic agents cannot always be accounted for by differences in proliferation rate and the degree of proliferation dependence of some cytotoxic agents, observed with normal (non-tumour) cells, is frequently insufficient to explain the large difference in sensitivity between normal and tumour cells^3,4. It must be presumed, therefore, that there are inherent differences in sensitivity between tumour cell lines and also between tumour cells and normal cells.