A Model for in Vitro Growth of Human Oral Carcinomas. A Preliminary Report

Tumour tissue and normal human oral epithelium from 9 cases of intra-oral carcinoma were established as explant cultures. Outgrowth was obtained from 7 cases and 2 failed to grow in vitro. Cytomorphologically heterogeneous outgrowths were observed in 5 cases, whereas in 2 cases morphologically uniform cells grew out from the explants. Tumour cells were kept proliferating for more than 3 months enabling long term studies of the biological characteristics of tumour cells from human intra-oral carcinomas.