Growth and characterization of childhood rhabdomyosarcomas as xenografts.

Eleven surgical specimens of childhood rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), two bone marrow samples, and cells from ascitic fluid from 1 patient were implanted sc into immune-deprived inbred CBA/CaJ mice. From these, seven lines of RMS were obtained as xenografts, each retaining the histologic characteristics of the tumor of origin and human lactate dehydrogenase isozymes; these represented 6 of the 11 surgical specimens, whereas one line originated from the transplanted cells from ascitic fluid. It was concluded that children RMS has a fairly high frequency of heterotransplantability in this system and that such a laboratory model may prove useful in the development of new therapeutic regimens in this disease.