A panel of 60 human tumor cell lines is currently being used in the U.S. National Cancer Institute's in vitro anticancer
drug screen. The panel is organized into 7 subpanels; 6
leukemia/
lymphoma lines comprise one subpanel, and 54 other lines are organized into subpanels representing solid
tumors of the central nervous system (CNS), colon, lung, ovaries, kidneys and
melanomas. In the present study, the
leukemia and
lymphoma cell lines were analyzed by flow cytometry for appropriate
CD antigens; all but 1 line showed patterns of expression consistent with their reported derivations. The solid
tumor lines were characterized individually using morphological and immunocytochemical techniques to determine their relative degrees of representativity for the subpanels within which they are currently grouped. Histological, histochemical and ultrastructural examinations were performed on cell lines grown under identical conventional culture conditions and as xenografts in nude mice. Immunocytochemistry using panels of
antibodies raised against 6 types of intermediate filaments, 7
adenocarcinoma-associated
antigens, 7
melanoma/neuro-ectodermal-associated
antigens, 3 neuroendocrine-associated
antigens, 9 urinary tract associated
antigens, and 4 markers of muscle differentiation was done on cells grown in monolayer culture. Central nervous system (CNS) cell lines lacked expression of
glial fibrillary acidic protein, but all had other features consistent with derivation from
glioblastoma. Lines derived from
adenocarcinomas of the colon, lung and ovary, for the most part, expressed
adenocarcinoma-associated
antigens and showed histological and/or ultrastructural evidence of gland formation and other adenomatous features. Most of these lines were poorly differentiated. Lines derived from large-cell and
squamous-cell cancers also showed some characteristics consistent with their reported origins, except for one line which showed immunocytochemical and morphologic characteristics consistent with
rhabdomyosarcoma. The 2 lines derived from
small cell lung cancer (SCLC) lacked neurosecretory granules and 3 other SCLC markers but showed morphologic features consistent with SCLC. Most
melanoma cell lines strongly expressed
melanoma-associated
antigens and were morphologically similar to human
melanoma. Five lines produced premelanosomes, melanosomes or
melanin. Most of the
renal cancer cell lines showed morphologic or immunocytochemical features consistent with renal clear cell
carcinoma. Collectively, these morphological and immunocytochemical analyses provide information concerning tissue of origin,
tumor type, degree of differentiation and other
biologic features essential to the use of these lines in a disease-oriented in vitro
antitumor drug screen and to the interpretation of data derived therefrom.