Growth characteristics of MOPC-315 plasmacytoma and response to anticancer agents

We examined the growth characteristics and response to anticancer agents of the murine plasmacytoma MOPC-315, a rapidly growing and widely disseminating tumor syngeneic in BALB/c mice. The doubling time for the tumor was approximately 24 hours, and about 1 in 100 cells was tumorigenic. We developed a spleen colony assay for the clonogenic component of the tumor and used it to define the dose-response relationships for various anticancer agents, including melphalan, cyclophosphamide, 1,3-bis(chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea, 5-fluouracil, gamma-radiation, methotrexate, methylprednisolone, cytosine arabinoside, and vincristine.