title: Growing colorectal tumors: minimizing microbial and stromal competition and assessing in vitro selection pressures.
abstract: Development of primary colorectal cancer cell lines ishampered by contamination from regional microbes, overgrowthof stromal cells, and purported genetic drift from selectionpressures in vitro. We initiated 32 primaryadenocarcinomas, 3 recurrences and 6 distant metastases incell culture. Twelve cell lines from eleven tumors weregenerated (26.8%) overall. Nine of 32 primary tumorsyielded 10 cell lines, 5 were lost to contamination, 13 wereoverwhelmed by stromal cells, and 5 demonstrated no growth.Addition of isobutyl methyl xanthine (IBMX) to culturelimited fibroblastoid growth. There was no associationbetween tumor location (p = 0.535, mid-P), degree ofdifferentiation (p = 0.850, mid-P) or clinicopathologic stage(p = 0.400, mid-P), and the ability of cells to becomeestablished in culture. The majority of cell lines hadsimilar nuclear DNA content and expression of cell-surfaceantigens compared with their parent tumors. Microbialcontamination and stromal cell overgrowth present thegreatest obstacle to capturing a representative bank ofcolon tumors in vitro.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Surgery and Pathology, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, U.S.A..
authors.forename: T M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Farrell
authors.forename: O S
authors.initials: OS
authors.lastname: Pettengill
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Longnecker
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Cate
authors.forename: K H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Cohn