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Endogenous Tumor Growth Factor Indicated by Increased Ornithine Decarboxylase Activity in Malignant Cells Treated with Host Serum or Ascites Fluid¹

Department of Cancer Therapy Development, Pondville Hospital, Walpole, Massachusetts 02081 [J. V.], and Department of Surgery, Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, D. C. 20007 [S. A.]

Ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) production was used as an indicator of mitotic activity in neoplastic cells removed from murine hosts at progressive stages of growth. Cells from three ascites cancers and one fibrosarcoma were tested and showed declining ODC production with progressive growth. The cells were incubated with serum or malignant effusion fluid taken from the murine hosts at progressive stages of growth. For 2 to 3 weeks after tumor implantation, sera and, in particular, ascites fluids increasingly stimulated ODC production in cells at all stages of growth. With advancing disease, without the malignant growth having reached a stationary phase, the collected fluids decreasingly stimulated ODC production in the cells. The stimulating factor(s) in host serum and malignant effusion fluid were not tumor specific in the one combination tested.

¹ Supported by Grants CA-15960 and CA-16039, and by Research Fellowship CA-05086 (S. Agarwal), awarded by the National Cancer Institute, Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

² To whom requests for reprints should be addressed.

Received 9/14/78. Accepted 1/ 1/79.