Effect of Preoperative Radiotherapy on the Growth of Human Renal Carcinoma Tissue in Vitro

The growth of minced tumour tissue and normal kidney tissue in vitro was investigated in a material of 38 adenocarcinomas of the kidney, of which 17 had received preoperative radiotherapy in a total dose of 3 000–3 500 rads and the rest were unirradiated. The growth was estimated in degrees: no growth, primary attachment and cellular proliferation around the fragments and, thirdly, secondary growth allowing subculture. In the preoperatively non-irradiated group 71% of the tumour samples resulted in secondary or primary in vitro proliferation, whereas the comparable figure in the irradiated group was 18%. The difference was smaller as far as the normal kidney tissues in the same groups were concerned, being 86% and 71% respectively. The results of this study document, with in vitro methods, the marked loss in the proliferative capacity of tumour cells affected by preoperative irradiation.