Relationship between P-glycoprotein positivity, doxorubicin binding ability and histologic response to chemotherapy in osteosarcomas

We previously reported that the doxorubicin binding ability detected by the doxorubicin (adriamycin) binding assay was closely correlated with the chemosensitivity of human osteosarcomas. In this study, we undertook to clarify the relationship between P-glycoprotein positivity (%PPG) and doxorubicin binding ability (%DB) in human osteosarcomas in order to determine which is a more sensitive index of histologic response to chemotherapy. Ten primary osteosarcomas were analyzed by the doxorubicin binding assay and by immunofluorescence to detect cellular P-glycoprotein positivity. Three good responders to chemotherapy containing doxorubicin showed a %DB greater than 90% (average: 96.43%), whereas the seven poor responders had values less than 80% (average: 35.31%). The difference between the two groups was statistically significant (P=0.0167). However, the average %PPG of the three good responders was 6.73%, whereas the %PPG of the seven poor responders was 14.27%. There was no significant difference in %PPG between the two groups (P=0.3051). No negative correlation between the %DB and the %PPG of all osteosarcomas (r=0.536, P=0.1104) was found, although there was a trend that those tumors with a high %PPG showed a low %DB. These results suggest that osteosarcomas showing a low %DB and %PPG with poor response to chemotherapy, may have multidrug resistance mechanisms other than P-glycoprotein. Therefore, we conclude that doxorubicin binding ability, which reflects all of the doxorubicin-resistant mechanisms, was more sensitive than P-glycoprotein positivity in predicting the chemosensitivity of human osteosarcoma.