90 



The Cultivation of Human Tumour Tissue in Vitro. — Preliminary 



Note. 



By David Thomson, M.B., Ch.B. (Edin.), D.P.H. (Cantab.), Grocers' Research 

 Scholar, and John Gordon Thomson, M.A., M.B., Ch.B. (Edin.), Beit 

 Memorial Research Fellow. 



(Communicated by Sir Ronald Ross, K.C.B., F.R.S. Received April 4, — Read 



May 14, 1914.) 



(From the Marcus Beck Laboratory, Royal Society of Medicine, London.) 



[Plate 7.] 



On two occasions the authors have definitely succeeded in cultivating human 

 tumour tissue in vitro. The tissue was obtained at operations performed by 

 Sir John Bland-Sutton at the Middlesex Hospital, and conveyed in sterile 

 Ringer's solution in a thermos flask to the laboratory, where small portions 

 were immediately inoculated into the culture medium. 



(a) v Intracystic Papilloma of the Ovary (not truly malignant). — This tissue 

 was grown' in a medium composed of fowl plasma 1 part, Ringer's solution 

 (containing 05 per cent, of glucose) 1 part, and extract of the tumour in 

 Ringer's solution 1 part. On the third day of incubation at 37'5 C C. definite 

 buds of new growing tissue appeared. On the fifth day these were more 

 distinct and on the eighth day the amount of growth had increased considerably 

 (fig. 1, Plate 7). This growth consisted of a solid extension of epithelial 

 cells. As the growth increased it caused some liquefaction of the medium, 

 which was of a gelatinous consistence, and in the more liquefied parts the 

 new growing cells were scattered (fig. 2), but as a rule they remained in 

 contact with each other by means of long fine protoplasmic connections 

 (fig. 3). The new actively proliferating cells varied markedly from the cells 

 of the original tissue planted in the medium. The former were large and 

 amoeboid, with long processes which communicated with each other, and they 

 also contained large highly refractile granules. The original cells, on the 

 other hand, were much smaller ; they showed no amoeboid processes, did not 

 exhibit amoeboid movement and they contained few or no refractile granules. 

 This tumour was a very soft one and appeared to contain little or no fibrous 

 stroma. It was composed entirely of epithelial cells, and it will be noted 

 that the new growth also consisted of epithelial cells only. 



(b) Carcinomatous Gland from the Neck (secondary to carcinoma of the 

 floor of the mouth). — Small portions of this tumour tissue grew most success- 



