Repair of cisplatin‐DNA adducts by protein extracts from human ovarian carcinoma

Abstract

Human ovarian carcinoma exhibits a spectrum of responses to treatment with cisplatin, ranging from marked sensitivity to relative resistance. Variations in the efficiency with which cells repair cisplatin-DNA adducts may in part determine cisplatin sensitivity. We have investigated the use of a novel cell-free assay of nucleotide excision repair of platinated DNA to assess the DNA repair capacity of direct biopsies of untreated human ovarian carcinoma. In this pilot study, ovarian carcinoma extracts performed in vitro excision repair of platinated DNA. Moreover, tumors from different individuals varied as much as 10-fold in their repair capacity in this assay.