A chemosensitivity test was carried out on superficial bladder cancer using the dye exclusion assay for the purpose of screening chemosensitive drugs for prophylactic intravesical chemotherapy. Bladder cancer cells of each patients were incubated, in vitro, in the presence of adriamycin, (2"R)-4'-0-tetrahydropyranyladriamycin, mitomycin C, pepleomycin and 4'-epi-adriarnycin (500, ug/ml) at 5%, C02, 37°C for 2 hours. The cytotoxic effect of the drugs was evaluated by the ratio of stained cells

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... trypan-blue. The most effective drug was instilled postoperatively into the bladder 3 times for the first week, and every 2 weeks during the following 14 weeks. In 18 patients followed more than 4 months the prophylactic effect was evaluated. Fifteen of the 18 patients completed the protocol, but the remaining 3 patients failed to complete to the instillation because of severe irritability of the bladder. Tumor recurrence was demonstrated in two patients. Non-recurrence rates of tumors at 12 and 24 months were 93. 8% and 82. 0%, respectively. These results suggested that this rapid and handy assay was useful for the purpose of screening chemosensitive drugs for the intravesical chemoterapy.