In February of 1995 the lab received a modified radical mastectomy specimen that was procured following surgery of a 40 year old African American woman who had been previously diagnosed with locally advanced inflammatory breast cancer. The patient was enrolled on a neoadjuvant protocol and was treated with chemotherapy and radiation prior to her surgery. Histological analysis of the surgical specimen revealed a 3 to 4 cm lesion consisting of invasive poorly differentiated cells with pectoralis muscle invasion. The neoplasm was classified as a Bloom-Richardson grade 3 breast cancer and the cells were completely negative for ER and PR by immunohistochemistry. The specimen that came to the lab was very soft and stringy and significant areas of necrosis were evident in the specimen consistent with the prior cytotoxic therapy. Nevertheless, enzymatic dissociation of the specimen resulted in the isolation of significant numbers of viable breast cancer cells that adhered to the dish and gave rise to the SUM-149 cell line. The cells grew slowly in primary culture for approximately 2 months before their first passage. The cells proliferated in P1 for approximately one month, and thereafter were sub-cultured approximately every two weeks. In culture, the SUM-149 cells exhibited a classic epithelial morphology.
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