Establishment of In-vitro Cell Cultures Using Patient-derived Ascitic or Pleural Fluid from Cancer Patients

Introduction: Cell culture refers to laboratory techniques that enable the In-vitro growth of any kind of cells under physiological conditions. It has tremendous usage in biomedical and clinical research. Ascitic fluid and pleural fluid from cancer patients are excellent sources for cell culture to study metastatic cancers, tumor microenvironments, growth patterns, drug resistance, radiosensitivity, etc. Purpose: Primary aim of the study was to successfully establish In-vitro cell cultures using patient-derived ascitic or pleural fluid from cancer patients of Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute, India. Main objective of the study was to check and describe initial cell count (seeding density), average adherence time, morphology of cells, proliferation rate, etc. Methods: Ascitic or pleural fluid samples were collected from 20 cancer patients. After following proper methodologies, 12 successful cultures were taken into consideration. Proper storage and data collection were done simultaneously. Cell block review or fluid cytology reports were also taken to analyze the results properly. Results: In 12 different cultures, only adherence time were quite similar. The seeding densities, proliferation rates, doubling times, etc., were different for different patient samples. Malignancies, N:C ratios, and metastatic conditions were totally different for different cultures. In all cases, results of cultures were similar to the original patient. Conclusion: Our primary and initial data motivate and support us to carry out further research on cell culture and cancer biology to identify drug action mechanisms, drug resistance, radiosensitivity evaluation, etc.