[Establishment and characterization of a human rectal cancer cell line, SRM from primary diffuse infiltrating type...

Primary diffuse infiltrative cancer of the large bowel shows poor prognosis. A human rectal cancer cell line, designated as SRM, was established from the metastatic lymph node of a 35-year-old female patient. SRM cells have been cultured with RPMI-1640 medium supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum and grew as monolayers, showing a tendency to pile up. The doubling time of this cell line was 23.0 hours, and the modal number of chromosomes was 64 at passage 14. The cells produced CA19-9 and TPA in the spent medium and formed tumors in nude mice, the histology of which was similar to that of the primary tumor. CA19-9 in the cytoplasma of the transplanted tumor cells was demonstrated by the ABC method and the c-myc oncogene was amplified in the transplanted tumor in nude mice.