Intraperitoneal xenografts of human epithelial ovarian cancer in nude mice

Using continuous human ovarian cancer cell lines, i.p. xenografts were successfully established in nude mice from four of four attempts. When primary tumor material was used, xenografts grew in 8 of 10 attempts. From these eight, three passageable xenograft cell lines have been established. To our knowledge, this is the first report published of such xenografts. I.p. xenografts closely mimic the clinical behavior of human ovarian cancer, and those developed from primary tumor material maintain close morphological similarity to the parent primary tumor. When expression of placental alkaline phosphatase and the tumor associated antigens defined by the monoclonal antibodies HMFG1, HMFG2, AUA1, and F36/22 by these models was determined, those i.p. xenografts derived from primary tumor material exactly matched the original tumor, while none of the xenografts derived from the cell lines expressed these antigens. These models will be useful for investigating the biology and treatment of ovarian cancer.