In vivo growth of human bladder cancer cell lines.

Two human bladder cancer cell lines grew predictably in rats immunosuppressed with antilymphocyte serum. Intraperitoneal inoculation of tumor cell suspensions resulted in diffuse intraabdominal carcinomatosis with consequent host death after 10 to 20 days. Subcutaneous inoculation of tumor cell suspensions resulted in local tumors which grew exponentially for 20 to 30 days before eventual regression after 40 to 50 days; lung metastases developed in at least 13 per cent of the animals with subcutaneous tumors. The histologic appearance of the xenografted tumors closely resembled that of the original tumors. Subsequent in vitro culture of the xenografted tumors provided cell lines that were morphologically identical to the primary lines and that retained a human karyotype. It is proposed to employ this model of human bladder cancer to evaluate chemotherapeutic agents for possible use in the clinical disease.