Establishment and characterization of a small round cell sarcoma cell line, SCCH-196, with t(11;22)(q24;q12).

A cell line designated SCCH-196 was established from an extraskeletal small round cell sarcoma developed in a 16-year-old Japanese girl. The cells grew as a monolayer, and have been continuously propagated by serial subcultures during the past 26 months. Cells from the primary tumor and those from the SCCH-196 cell line at passage 10 both showed the same karyotype, 51,XX, +8, +20, +21, t(11;22)(q24;q12), +i(1q), +i(1q). Histologically the primary tumor was difficult to classify as either Ewing's sarcoma (ES) or peripheral neuroepithelioma (NE). Neuron-specific enolase-positive cells in the primary tumor and the occurrence in the upper extremity were in favor of NE, while positive reaction of SCCH-196 cells to an ES-specific monoclonal antibody 5C11 suggested a diagnosis of ES. The SCCH-196 cell line may be useful for basic studies on differentiation of neuroectodermal tumors, and for future cloning of still unidentified genes which may be located at the breakpoints of the 11;22 translocation.