Establishment and characterization of two human small cell lung carcinoma cell lines.

Two human cellular lines of cancerous small lung cells obtained from biopsies specimens from two patients were characterized in vitro according to cellular morphology, growth modality, caryotype and antigenic profile. In vivo studies were carried out by inoculating the cells into nude mice of both sexes and various ages by different routes in order to study tumorigenicity and metastatic capacity and to identify a biological marker of the malignancy. Results obtained to date suggest that the two cellular lines have different biological properties similar to the classic and the variant form found in literature. A biological marker of the malignancy seems to be the antigenic profile of the cells.