Two cell lines derived from primary human renal-cell cancers (RCC) have been established and characterized. Cell line 786-O has been in culture for longer than 1 year and has been subcultured more than 50 times. It has a doubling time of 45 hr and a hypertriploid karyotype and possesses a Y chromosome. Cell line 769-P also has been in culture for longer than 1 year. It has been subcultured 50 times and has a doubling time of 35 hr and a hypodiploid karyotype. Cells from both lines are epithelial, and they produce tumors in the cheek pouches of immunosuppressed hamsters. Neither cell line is contaminated with Mycoplasma. Cells of the two lines can be distinguished from HeLa cells both by their karyotypes and by the mobility patterns of their isoenzymes of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase.

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A technique for initiating and propagating epithelial cell cultures of human renal cell cancer and adjacent nontumor kidney is described. Seventy-five percent of the tumors and 79% of the adjacent kidney specimens cultured with this method have shown initial outgrowth and have been subcultured at least once. Two renal cell cancer cultures initiated by this method have now been in continuous culture more than 6 months, have been subcultured 27 and 18 times, and now appear to be stable lines. The ability to establish long-term in vitro cultures of human renal cell cancers will facilitate studies concerning the immunoreactivity, cholesterol metabolism, the isolation of renal-cell-cancer-specific antigens, and in vitro chemotherapy testing and will further our understanding of the basic biology of human renal cell cancer.

Cells cultured from human urogenital cancer and other cancers as well as cells from noncancerous tissues were examined by immunofluorescent staining with antibodies to T-antigens and capsid antigens of papovaviruses BK virus (BKV), JC virus, and simian virus 40(SV40), and to capsid antigens of herpes simplex virus types 1 and 2 and human cytomegalovirus (CMV). Cells from early passage cultures of 123 primary tissues and from 14 continuous lines derived from transitional or renal cell carcinoma were tested. None of the cell preparations was specifically stained with any of the antisera. A serologic comparison of patients with bladder cancer, patients with prostate cancer, and normal control groups of BKV hemagglutination-inhibiting and SV40-neutralizing antibodies showed no differences among the 3 groups. None of the sera in the 3 groups had SV40 or BKV T-antibodies. In tests of supernatants of 35 primary cultures for presence of virus, a single isolation, that of a cytomegalovirus, was made. The study revealed no evidence that infection with papovaviruses of the SV40-polyoma subgroup has any part in the production of bladder and prostate cancer.