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Spheroids in Cancer Research¹

Department of Radiation Biology and Biophysics and Cancer Center University of Rochester Rochester, N. Y. 14642

Jorgen Carlsson

National Defense Research Institute Department FOA 4 S-90182 Umea, Sweden

Ralph Durand

Radiation Biology Department The Johns Hopkins Oncology Center Baltimore, Md. 21205

John Yuhas

University of Pennsylvania Department of Radiation Therapy Philadelphia, Pa. 19104

The purpose of the meeting was to exchange information on spheroid culture methods and to review the role of spheroids in cancer research. Techniques and results presented at this meeting suggested many areas of promising research applications using the multicellular spheroid tumor model system to better understand certain aspects of basic tumor biology and responses to different agents with therapeutic potential. Multicellular spheroids provide a system of intermediate complexity between standard two-dimensional culture systems and tumors in vivo and, when applied in experiments in conjunction with studies at other levels of complexity in the other systems, can produce important insight in a variety of areas of tumor biology. Accurate interpretation of results from experiments using multicellular spheroids requires detailed characterization of the particular spheroid culture system being used. Furthermore, care must be exercised to avoid generalizations from the study of only one or a few spheroid systems, since significant differences among different types of spheroid cells have been reported, as is often the case for tumors in vivo. As with any model system, it is important to be continually aware of its strengths and its limitations.

¹ The First International Workshop/Conference on Spheroids in Cancer Research was held at the Cancer Center, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, June 16 to 20, 1980. Because of the requirement to be concise, it has been necessary to eliminate experimental details and specific citations in this report. In addition, certain areas covered at the meeting have been mentioned only briefly or omitted entirely. Details and citations of the research presented at the conference can be obtained by writing to Dr. Robert Sutherland, to whom requests for reprints should be addressed.

Received 1/23/81. Accepted 4/14/81.

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