Radiation survival of human mammary carcinoma cells: criteria for an agar-based clonogenic assay.

A human in vivo-in vitro model for breast cancer has been developed based on culture methods that were systematically optimized for solid breast carcinomas. A V-79 cell clonal agar-based model was used to define the analysis problem encountered with agar based clonogenic survival assays. Based on this, we established methods for the generation and analysis of the survival of primary and recurrent breast carcinomas following irradiation. Four out of five primary breast carcinomas studied had similar radiation-cell survival curves. The fifth tumor was more radioresistant. Interestingly, a recurrent breast carcinoma arising in a heavily irradiated chest wall was no more radioresistant than our series of unirradiated primary carcinomas. These methods may be useful both for the study of the radiobiology of human neoplasms and for customizing the treatments and prognosis of individual patients.