Some Cultural and Cytological Characteristics of Human Tumors in Vitro*t

The present study was undertaken to determine both the general growth patterns and some of the cytological details of frequently occurring human tumors. For this purpose the roller tube method, which provides good nutritional conditions, and the hanging drop method, which, less favorable nutritionally, provides optimal conditions for cytological investigation, were used. The cultural behavior of human tumors grown in roller tube cultures has been observed by Gey and Gey (8) and Coman (4, 5). Other investigators, among them Kredel (11); Buckley (1) ; Russell and Bland (16); Zakrzewski and Kraszewski (17); Pinkus (15); Hgfer (10); Grand, Chambers, and Cameron (9); and Murray and Bradley (14), have studied the cultural characteristics of human tumors in hanging drop slides or Carrel flasks and incidentally have included observations on the cytology of their cells. It therefore seemed worth while to study primarily the cytology of the stroma and parenchyma, including the shapes of the cells and their nuclei, the condition of the cytoplasm and nucleoplasm, the form and distribution of mitochondria and neutral red granules, the shapes and number of nucleoli, and the process of division whenever possible; and, secondarily, to note any individual peculiarities in the cultural behavior of these neoplasms.