['Less than 30% of malignant gliomas respond to adjuvant chemotherapy. Here, we have asked whether variations in the constitutive expression of early-growth response factor 1 (EGR-1) predicted acute cytotoxicity and clonogenic cell death in vitro, induced by six different chemotherapics.', 'Cytotoxicity assays were performed on cells derived from fresh tumor explants of 18 human cases of malignant glioma. In addition to EGR-1, tumor cultures were investigated for genetic alterations and the expression of cancer regulating factors, related to the p53 pathway.', 'We found that sensitivity to cisplatin correlates significantly with levels of EGR-1 expression in tumors with wild-type p53/INK4a/p16 status.'] Does sensitivity to cisplatin in primary cell lines derived from human glioma correlate with levels of EGR-1 expression?