HUMAN TUMOR ASSAY JOURNAL

Journal Mission Statement:

Human Tumor Assays are laboratory tests performed on fresh biopsy specimens of human neoplasms, which include the following procedures: (1) isolating tumor cells from these specimens, (2) exposing the tumor cells to drugs during short-term (3 - 7 days) culture, and (3) assessing drug effects by measuring either cell proliferation or cell death. The clinical application of these assays is based on the fact that drug effects in these assays correlates with and predicts for drug effects in the patient. The results of these assays are then used by clinical oncologists to select drugs to be used for the treatment of individual patients. This may be a "negative" selection (avoidance of drugs with a below-average probability of clinical benefit) and/or a "positive" selection (selection of drugs with an above-average probability of clinical benefit).

This journal was created as a forum for sharing information relating to Human Tumor Assays. It is a site for presenting research results, publishing editorials and reviews, and providing links to sites which pertain to the testing of fresh human tumor specimens to determine the probability that different forms of cancer treatment will be effective in individual patients and in different classes of neoplasms.