Growth and morphological characteristics of two brain metastases of human large cell carcinomas of the lung in vivo and in monolayer and spheroid cultures.

The morphology and the proliferation rate of two metastases to the brain of human large cell cancer of the lung were determined following excision. TEM of the metastasis suggested one to be a low differentiated squamous cell carcinoma, while the other fullfilled the criteria for an adenocarcinoma. Cell cultures derived from these metastases were studied as to their morphology and proliferative capacity when grown as monolayers and in spheroid culture. One of the cell lines obtained (Tp 242-C) was found to be anaplastic in culture and to show few special characteristics, while the other (Tp 362-C) demonstrated a number of unique qualities such as an inability to translocate both on glass and on substrate covered by extracellular matrix, an island pattern of cell growth in monolayer culture, multiple desmosome junctions between the cells, and the production of inter- and intra-cellular, villi- covered luminae. In spheroid culture the line Tp 242-C formed tissue-like tumorlets which of the original metastasis. These two new lines of human lung cancers, when fully characterized, may prove of value in biological and therapeutic studies of human lung cancer of the large cell type, the origin, homogeneity as a group and behaviour of which are still under debate.