The Use of Long-Term Human Leukocyte Cell Cultures as Models for the Study of Antileukemic Agents

Four clinically active antileukemic drugs were applied to six long-term human leukocyte cultures, derived from patients with acute and chronic myelogenous leukemia, lymphosarcoma, and Burkitt's lymphoma, to a cell line isolated from the peripheral blood of a normal individual and to a line prepared from ascitic lymphocytes of L1210 mouse leukemia. Dose-response and cell exposure time-response curves were obtained in vitro for each of the cytotoxic test agents. These studies provide new insight into the C X T relationships of the four test drugs and indicate that the long-term human leukocyte culture model may be useful in the evaluation of some of the factors determining the effectiveness of a drug as a chemotherapeutic agent.