Abstract: The present invention provides methods for individualizing chemotherapy for cancer treatment, and particularly for evaluating a patient's responsiveness to sunitinib prior to treatment. The method comprises expanding malignant cells in culture from a patient's tumor specimen, contacting the cultured cells with one or more active agents including sunitinib, and evaluating or quantifying the response to the active agent(s). The result of the assay is a dose response curve, which may be evaluated using algorithms described herein, so as to quantitatively assess drug sensitivity. The in vitro response to the drug as determined by the method of the invention is correlative with the patient's in vivo response upon receiving sunitinib during chemotherapeutic treatment, in the course of standardized or individualized chemotherapeutic regimen.

Abstract: The present invention provides methods for individualizing therapy for cancer treatment, and particularly for evaluating a patient's responsiveness to one or more antifolate therapeutic agents prior to treatment with such agents. Particularly, the invention provides an in vitro chemoresponse assay for predicting a patient's response to an antifolate agent, such as pemetrexed or methotrexate.