Soft agar culture of human transitional cell carcinoma colonies from urine.

Soft-agar culture of transitional cell carcinoma colonies from urine, bladder irrigation fluid, and transurethral resection solid tumor specimens demonstrate generally better growth of tumor cell colonies from urine than from irrigation fluid. Growth of tumor colonies from urine was adequate to evaluate presence of tumor and to study growth parameters of the tumor colonies in vitro, although the number of colonies produced from urine was inadequate to evaluate sensitivity or resistance to chemotherapeutic agents. Growth in soft agar of transitional cell carcinoma colonies from urine may offer a simple, noninvasive method of evaluating the effectiveness of therapy and the prognosis for tumor progression.