Differential survival of solid tumor cells after inoculation into established ascites tumors.

the term is used to denote a condition where free tumor cells or cell complexes multiply in the peri toneal fluid, and, accompanied by the gradual ac cumulation of ascites, there attain a nearly pure culture. The 42 tumors surveyed showed three dis tinctly different patterns of behavior: (a) Six tu mors, mainly malignant lymphomas, grew readily in the ascites form when adequate numbers of cells from the solid tumor were injected intraperitoneally. (6) Six other neoplasms yielded exudates poor in tumor cells. Upon further serial intraperitoneal transfer of these exudates typical ascites tumors were eventually obtained, (c) The majority, 30 tu mors, did not lend themselves to transformation into the ascites form under the conditions used. The present investigation represents the first step in a series of experiments designed to gain in formation about the factors concerned in deter mining whether a certain tumor can be grown in the ascites form. It is possible that the difference among these three tumor categories is dependent on a differential capacity of the various cell popu lations to survive and multiply in the peritoneal fluid. Alternatively, the findings could be due to variations in the capacity of different tumors to provoke primary exÃodate formation after intra peritoneal inoculation. In the latter case, survival of various tumor cell populations inoculated into established peritoneal exudates would not be ex pected to be systematically different. To decide among these possibilities, several neoplasms which have been studied previously with regard to their ascites tumor-producing capacity were inoculated as cell suspensions into established peritoneal exudates, and their survival in the fluid was tested by means of a biological assay.