The patient was a 73-year-old female. A whitish, flat, protruding tumor of 5×30mm in size was seen in the right corner of her mouth, contiguous with a whitish verrucous tumor of 20×30mm in size in the right buccal mucous membrane. This was diagnosed from biopsy as squamous cell carcinoma. No metastasis to other organs was found with diagnostic imaging. With consideration of the cosmetic and functional prognosis, anticancer agents were injected locally. An anticancer agent sensitivity test (CD-DST) was used in selection of the anticancer agent. A high sensitivity was shown to peplomycin sulfate only. When this agent was used in local injection the tumor shrank and there was a clear clinical effect. Degeneration of the tumor cells was also seen histopathologically, and necrosis was confirmed. Afterward, radiation therapy was also given, but a biopsy revealed remaining tumor cells. Finally the tumor was resected, although the area of the resection was small. The above indicates that CD-DST, which has the capacity to screen in advance the anticancer agents expected to have a clinical effect, will be a useful test in the future. [Skin Cancer (Japan) 2004; 19: 186-189]
