Skip to main content
NCBI home page
British Journal of Cancer logoLink to British Journal of Cancer
. 1990 Dec;62(6):935–941. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1990.413

Growth and radiosensitivity testing of human tumour cells using the adhesive tumour cell culture system.

C S Parkins 1, G G Steel 1
PMCID: PMC1971586  PMID: 2257223

Abstract

The radiosensitivity of human tumour cell lines and cells cultured from xenografts or biopsy specimens was measured using the adhesive tumour cell culture system (ATCCS). For cell lines the derived surviving fractions at 2 Gy were in good agreement with values obtained by clonogenic assay. However, the assay tended to overestimate survival at higher radiation doses, and thus to give a false impression of radioresistance. When cells taken from xenografts or tumour biopsies were cultured there was no evidence for selective growth of tumour cells: fibroblast-like cells commonly grew. Immunohistochemical staining against the intermediate filament, vimentin, supported the mesenchymal origin of the fibroblast-like cells. In cultures of artificial mixtures of tumour cells and fibroblasts, low proportions of fibroblasts were not excluded by the assay and consequently modified the radiation response. The majority of cultures grown from bladder carcinoma biopsy specimens appeared fibroblast-like, although in some cases clearly distinguishable colonies of tumour cells were also grown. In such tumour types the reliable measurement of radiosensitivity in cells taken from biopsies will require further development of techniques that allow the selective growth of tumour cells.

Full text

PDF
935

Images in this article

937Figure 3
on p.937
937Figure 5
on p.937
938Figure 7
on p.938
939Figure 8
on p.939

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Ajani J. A., Baker F. L., Spitzer G., Kelly A., Brock W., Tomasovic B., Singletary S. E., McMurtrey M., Plager C. Comparison between clinical response and in vitro drug sensitivity of primary human tumors in the adhesive tumor cell culture system. J Clin Oncol. 1987 Dec;5(12):1912–1921. doi: 10.1200/JCO.1987.5.12.1912. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Baker F. L., Spitzer G., Ajani J. A., Brock W. A., Lukeman J., Pathak S., Tomasovic B., Thielvoldt D., Williams M., Vines C. Drug and radiation sensitivity measurements of successful primary monolayer culturing of human tumor cells using cell-adhesive matrix and supplemented medium. Cancer Res. 1986 Mar;46(3):1263–1274. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Besch G. J., Tanner M. A., Howard S. P., Wolberg W. H., Gould M. N. Systematic optimization of the clonal growth of human primary breast carcinoma cells. Cancer Res. 1986 May;46(5):2306–2313. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Courtenay V. D., Mills J. An in vitro colony assay for human tumours grown in immune-suppressed mice and treated in vivo with cytotoxic agents. Br J Cancer. 1978 Feb;37(2):261–268. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1978.35. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Deacon J. M., Wilson P. A., Peckham M. J. The radiobiology of human neuroblastoma. Radiother Oncol. 1985 Apr;3(3):201–209. doi: 10.1016/s0167-8140(85)80029-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Deacon J., Peckham M. J., Steel G. G. The radioresponsiveness of human tumours and the initial slope of the cell survival curve. Radiother Oncol. 1984 Dec;2(4):317–323. doi: 10.1016/s0167-8140(84)80074-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Fan D., Ajani J. A., Baker F. L., Tomasovic B., Brock W. A., Spitzer G. Comparison of antitumor activity of standard and investigational drugs at equivalent granulocyte-macrophage colony-forming cell inhibitory concentrations in the adhesive tumor cell culture system: an in vitro method of screening new drugs. Eur J Cancer Clin Oncol. 1987 Oct;23(10):1469–1476. doi: 10.1016/0277-5379(87)90088-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Fertil B., Malaise E. P. Inherent cellular radiosensitivity as a basic concept for human tumor radiotherapy. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 1981 May;7(5):621–629. doi: 10.1016/0360-3016(81)90377-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Hamburger A. W., Salmon S. E. Primary bioassay of human tumor stem cells. Science. 1977 Jul 29;197(4302):461–463. doi: 10.1126/science.560061. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Malaise E. P., Fertil B., Deschavanne P. J., Chavaudra N., Brock W. A. Initial slope of radiation survival curves is characteristic of the origin of primary and established cultures of human tumor cells and fibroblasts. Radiat Res. 1987 Aug;111(2):319–333. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Pera M. F., Blasco Lafita M. J., Mills J. Cultured stem-cells from human testicular teratomas: the nature of human embryonal carcinoma, and its comparison with two types of yolk-sac carcinoma. Int J Cancer. 1987 Sep 15;40(3):334–343. doi: 10.1002/ijc.2910400309. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Peters L. J., Brock W. A., Johnson T., Meyn R. E., Tofilon P. J., Milas L. Potential methods for predicting tumor radiocurability. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 1986 Apr;12(4):459–467. doi: 10.1016/0360-3016(86)90053-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Price P., McMillan T. J. Use of the tetrazolium assay in measuring the response of human tumor cells to ionizing radiation. Cancer Res. 1990 Mar 1;50(5):1392–1396. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Sommers C. L., Walker-Jones D., Heckford S. E., Worland P., Valverius E., Clark R., McCormick F., Stampfer M., Abularach S., Gelmann E. P. Vimentin rather than keratin expression in some hormone-independent breast cancer cell lines and in oncogene-transformed mammary epithelial cells. Cancer Res. 1989 Aug 1;49(15):4258–4263. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Svensson H. The 6th Klaas Breur memorial lecture, 1987. The Chernobyl accident--impact Western Europe. Radiother Oncol. 1988 May;12(1):1–13. doi: 10.1016/0167-8140(88)90187-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Tofilon P. J., Vines C. M., Meyn R. E., Wike J., Brock W. A. Heterogeneity in radiation sensitivity within human primary tumour cell cultures as detected by the SCE assay. Br J Cancer. 1989 Jan;59(1):54–60. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1989.11. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. West C. M., Davidson S. E., Hunter R. D. Evaluation of surviving fraction at 2 Gy as a potential prognostic factor for the radiotherapy of carcinoma of the cervix. Int J Radiat Biol. 1989 Nov;56(5):761–765. doi: 10.1080/09553008914552011. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from British Journal of Cancer are provided here courtesy of Cancer Research UK

RESOURCES