Establishment and characterisation of cell lines from patients with lung cancer (predominantly small cell carcinoma).

Tissue samples from 59 patients with lung cancer have been used to establish cell lines in culture. The primary diagnosis was small cell carcinoma in all except four. Most of the samples were of bone marrow but pleural effusions, lymph node biopsies and skin metastases were also included. The samples were usually split between HITES serum-free medium and HITES plus 2.5% foetal calf serum. A total of 19 cell lines were established and characterised. One line is large cell anaplastic lung carcinoma, four are B-lymphoblastoid and fourteen are small cell lung cancer. Considerable heterogeneity in gross morphology, neuroendocrine differentiation (by electron microscopy) and content of the enzyme L-dopa decarboxylase was seen. The use of HITES plus 2.5% foetal calf serum resulted in better establishment of cultures than did serum-free HITES.