Objective: To investigate the effect of 5-FU plus sandostatin on apoptosis in breast cancer.
Methods: Breast cancer samples from 16 patients were treated with 5-FU (10 microg/ml) and sandostatin (0.1 microg/ml) in vitro using the in situ terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase assay (TDT) to detect apoptosis. The patients were female (mean age 54.4 years). In the 16 patients, 10 had positive estrogen receptor (ER) and positive progestogen receptor (PR), and the rest had negative ER and PR.
Results: 18 hours after addition of 5-FU, sandostatin and both, the apoptotic rate of tumor cells was (21.8 +/- 6.6)%, (14.3 +/- 8.8)%, and (26.7 +/- 6.9)% respectively. When samples were divided into 2 groups according to the sensitivity of ER and PR, the apoptotic rate of 5-FU plus sandostatin was (32.2 +/- 7.9)%, in positive ER and PR group, but (20.5 +/- 5.5)% in negative ER and PR group (P < 0.05).
Conclusions: 5-FU plus sandostatin is more sensitive in the positive ER and PR group than in the negative ER and PR group. 5-FU plus sandostatin would be helpful in the biotherapy of breast cancer patients with positive ER and PR.