Organ culture of a glioblastoma from a patient with an unusually long survival

MULTICELLULAR TUMOR SPHEROIDS were directly initiated in vitro from the biopsy specimens of a patient who is alive and who has had no neurological changes in 7 years after the gross removal of a glioblastoma. The spheroids were studied alone and in confrontation with aggregates of fetal rat brain tissue. Both in the biopsy and in the tumor spheroids, a very high proportion of cells were proliferating, as flow cytometric deoxyribonucleic acid measurements showed that 40% of the cells in the biopsy specimens and in the tumor spheroids were in the S and G₂M phases of the cell cycle. Despite this high proliferation rate, the volume of the spheroids decreased, indicating an even greater cell loss. Light and scanning electron microscopic studies also indicated cell death in the spheroids. This behavior may be related to the long-time survival.