Patent ID: 8778331

Claim:
A method of determining susceptibility of a tumor cell to a chemotherapeutic agent, comprising the steps of: (a) providing a tumor cell isolated from a human suffering from a tumor, and said human is expected to receive a chemotherapeutic agent for treatment of said tumor; (b) infecting said provided tumor cell with a herpes simplex virus-1 lacking an immediate early gene, said immediate early gene is selected from the group consisting of ICP27, ICP4, and ICP22; (c) detecting a presence of one morphological alteration in said infected tumor cell, said morphological alteration in said infected tumor cell is selected from the group consisting of cell shrinkage, membrane blebbing, and chromatin condensation or a presence of death factor, said death factor is selected from the group consisting of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase, caspase 3, and DNA fragmentation factor-45; (d) assessing the efficacy of a chemotherapeutic agent for treating said tumor in said human, said efficacy is determined by the presence of morphological alternation or the presence of death factor in said infected tumor cell, and said chemotherapeutic agent is selected from the group consisting of doxorubicin, etoposide, paclitaxel, cisplatin, and 5-fluorouracil, wherein the presence of said morphological alternation or death factor in said infected tumor cell is indicative of susceptibility of said tumor in said human being susceptible to said chemotherapeutic agent; and (e) providing to said human with said chemotherapeutic agent for treatment of said tumor, wherein said presence of morphological alteration or death factor is determined in said tumor cell.