BCNU-sensitivity in parental cells and clones from four freshly resected near-diploid human gliomas: an astrocytoma, an anaplastic astrocytoma and two glioblastomas multiforme.

We compared the BCNU sensitivity of 4 freshly resected tumors (astrocytoma WM, and malignant gliomas MK, MB, and AM) and their clones to their karyology. The majority of primary cells in all 4 tumors had near-diploid chromosome numbers (2n +/-) and all were resistant to concentrations of BCNU exceeding 10 micrograms/ml. Following in vitro cultivation, the cells from tumors WM and MB retained their 2n +/- modal chromosome number with little change in the complexity of the karyotype. In contrast, tumors MK and AM demonstrated a more unstable genome. The modal chromosome number of MK shifted from 45 to 86 and that of tumor AM from 45 to 90. Karyotyping demonstrated additional ploidy changes and new marker chromosomes in both tumors. The colony forming assay (CFA) performed on the in vitro cultivated cells demonstrated little change in the sensitivity to BCNU in tumors WM and MB, while tumors MK and AM exhibited greater than a one log cell kill at 10.0 micrograms/ml and 15.0 micrograms/ml BCNU, respectively. The modal chromosome number and BCNU sensitivity followed a similar pattern in the 30 clones that were isolated; 21 clones with near-diploid and pseudodiploid chromosome numbers were all resistant to BCNU doses at or greater than 10 micrograms/ml. In contrast, 9 clones isolated from the 3 malignant gliomas with 3n +/- and 4n +/- modal chromosome numbers were sensitive to this concentration of BCNU. The karyotypes of the hyperdiploid clones were more complex; they contained 5 or more ploidy changes and/or had marker chromosomes. These studies confirm the association of diploidy and BCNU-resistance in freshly resected malignant gliomas.