ABSTRACT
Establishing cancer cell cultures from patient-derived specimens such as tumor tissue, pleural effusion, or ascites in a consistent and reliable manner has been a vital tool for studying biology of human cancer and evaluating the effectiveness of novel therapies. Many media have been successfully used to establish colon cancer cell lines. The combination of Dulbeccos Modified Eagle’s medium (DMEM), RPMI 1640 and Ham’s F12, and DMEM and Ham’s F12 are the most commonly used media. Serum concentrations vary from 2% to 20%, with no apparent difference in success rates. Manipulating culture conditions using selective media is the standard method for selecting microorganisms. However, because of the basic metabolic similarity to the nutritional requirements of most cells isolated from an animal, application to animal cells is limited. Cancer cells can grow into floating aggregates, tightly or loosely adherent colonies, and can grow into adherence and floating subpopulations. Physically remove well-isolated tumor cell colony by scraping it with a sterile blunt instrument.
