Efficacy of Recombinant Methioninase on Late-stage Patient Cancer in the Histoculture Drug Response Assay (HDRA) as a Potential Functional Biomarker of Sensitivity to Methionine-restriction Therapy in the Clinic.

Background/aim: The present study utilized the three-dimensional histoculture drug response assay (HDRA) to determine the efficacy of recombinant methioninase (rMETase) on tumor tissue resected from patients with late-stage cancer, as a functional biomarker of sensitivity to methionine restriction therapy.

Patients and methods: Resected peritoneal-metastatic cancer, including colorectal cancer, pancreatic cancer, ovarian cancer, and pseudomyxoma were placed on Gelform in RPMI 1640 medium for seven days and treated with rMETase from 2.5 U/ml to 20 U/ml. Cell viability was determined using the MTT assay. A total of 48 patients with late-stage cancer underwent testing for rMETase responsiveness using the HDRA.

Results: Colorectal cancer and pseudomyxoma had the highest sensitivity to rMETase. Pancreatic and ovarian cancer also responded to rMETase, but to a lesser degree.

Conclusion: Patients with tumors with at least 40% sensitivity to rMETase in the HDRA are being considered as candidates for methionine restriction therapy, which includes the use of rMETase in combination with a low-methionine diet.