The first sample received in our lab from the patient who’s cells resulted in the establishment of the SUM-52 cell line came in October of 1991 and came as a metastatic lymph node that was diagnosed as positive for “metastatic adenocarcinoma consistent with breast primary”. Interestingly, the breast cancer cells in the metastatic lymph node specimen were estrogen receptor positive by immunohistochemistry. We were not successful in culturing cells from the metastatic lymph node. In June of 1992 the lab received a pleural effusion specimen from the same patient, and it was the cells from this sample that gave rise to the cell line. These cells grew very well in our 5%IH medium, consisting Ham’s F12 medium supplemented with insulin and hydrocortisone and 5% FBS, and were readily established as a cell line using that medium, and using all of the lessons and caveats that we learned from the establishment of SUM-44. The cells from the pleural effusion metastasis were ER-negative as are the SUM-52 cells. Even though the cells are ER-negative, they have been classified as luminal breast cancer cells based on their expression profile.
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