title: Cultivation of human breast carcinoma in soft agar. Experience with 237 fresh tumour specimens.
abstract: A total of 237 breast carcinomas have been studied with the Courtenay-Mills (C-M) soft agar method. Cell yields and plating efficiencies (PE) were recorded after various enzyme treatments. The highest cell yields and PEs were obtained with the combination of collagenase 0.5%, hyaluronidase 1000 IE ml-1 and DNase 0.1% and an incubation time of 2 h. Eighty percent of the specimens gave greater than 10 colonies, and 60% formed greater than 30 colonies permitting chemosensitivity studies. The C-M method gave significantly higher PEs than the Hamburger-Salmon (H-S) method. Hormone supplements (insulin, oestradiol, progesterone, hydrocortisone) and also reduced agar concentrations (less than 0.3%) gave marginal stimulation of colony formation. In chemosensitivity studies involving doxorubicin, vincristine and 4-OOH-cyclophosphamide, the C-M method gave dose-response relationships without plateaus.
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D002452:Cell Count; D002469:Cell Separation; D002999:Clone Cells; D003470:Culture Media; D003520:Cyclophosphamide / Q000494:pharmacology; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004317:Doxorubicin / Q000494:pharmacology; D005260:Female; D006652:Histological Techniques; D006801:Humans; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured / Q000187:drug effects; D014750:Vincristine / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media; D014750:Vincristine; D004317:Doxorubicin; D003520:Cyclophosphamide