[The use of continuous cell cultures for the study of tumor heterogeneity and drug sensitivity].

Intratumoral heterogeneity was observed in two tumor lines (SbC11 and SbC12) derived from a single biopsy of a melanoma patient. Differences in drug sensitivity were observed in three cell lines of small cell lung carcinoma derived from the same patient, before (AE1), and after (AE2 and AE3) therapy with Adriamycin (ADM) and Cisplatinum (DDP). Moreover, heterogeneity in biological features and in drug sensitivity was observed in three continuous human glioma derived cell lines (LI, DF, and DP). The results show the importance of continuous cell lines for studying tumor heterogeneity and evaluating the effectiveness of antineoplastic agents.