Fluoropyrimidine sensitivity of human MCF-7 breast cancer cells stably transfected with human uridine phosphorylase.

ABSTRACT

The relationship between uridine phosphorylase (UP) expression level in cancer cells and the tumour sensitivity to fluoropyrimidines is unclear. In this study, we found that UP overexpression by gene transfer, and the subsequent efficient metabolic activation of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) by the ribonucleotide pathway, does not increase the fluoropyrimidine sensitivity of MCF-7 human cancer cells.