System and methods for identifying cancer cell lines having anti-growth activity against other cancer cell lines

Abstract

A system and method for identifying malignant cancer cells that produce anti-cancer compounds may include adjacently confronting a first primary malignant cancer cell and a second primary malignant cancer cell, culturing the first colony of the first primary malignant cancer cells and the second colony of the second primary malignant cancer cells under conditions sufficient to promote growth of the cancer cells, and measuring an area of expansion of the first colony of the first primary malignant cancer cells across the midline into the area of the second colony of the second primary malignant cancer cells that is accompanied by regression of the second colony of the second primary occurring of malignant cancer cells from the midline commensurate with the area of expansion of the first colony of the first primary occurring malignant cancer cells.

What is claimed: 
     
         1 . A method for quantifying tumor virulence based on competition between dissimilar subcultured cancer cell lines, the method comprising:
 adjacently confronting a first primary malignant cancer cell and a second primary malignant cancer cell by plating on a culture plate in a growth medium a first colony of the first primary malignant cancer cells and a second colony of the second primary malignant cancer cells on directly opposite sides of a midline adjacent one another, wherein the first primary malignant cancer cells and the second primary malignant cancer cells are of different cancer types;   culturing the first colony of the first primary malignant cancer cells and the second colony of the second primary malignant cancer cells under conditions sufficient to promote growth of the cancer cells;   measuring an area of expansion of the first colony of the first primary malignant cancer cells across the midline into the area of the second colony of the second primary malignant cancer cells that is accompanied by regression of the second colony of the second primary occurring of malignant cancer cells from the midline commensurate with the area of expansion of the first colony of the first primary occurring malignant cancer cells.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the culture plate comprises unit markers for scoring the area of expansion across the midline. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising the step of quantifying a margin of dominance between the first primary malignant cancer cell and the second primary malignant cancer cell by assigning an alphanumeric score to each of the first primary malignant cancer cell and the second primary malignant cancer cell. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the unit markers are each assigned a pre-determine alphanumeric value, and wherein the step of assigning an alphanumeric score to each of the first primary malignant cancer cell and the second primary malignant cancer cell comprises awarding points for passage across the midline and subsequent occupation of a unit marker across the midline. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising the steps of:
 plating on a culture plate in a growth medium a colony of third naturally occurring malignant cancer cells and a colony of fourth naturally occurring malignant cancer cells on directly opposite sides of a midline adjacent one another, wherein the colony of third naturally occurring malignant cancer cells comprises a third type of cancer cell derived from a single malignant cancer cell of the third type of cancer cell and wherein the colony of fourth naturally occurring malignant cancer cells comprises a fourth type of cancer cell derived from a single malignant cancer cell of the fourth type of cancer cell, wherein the third type of cancer cell and the fourth type of cancer cell are of different cancer types;   culturing the colony of third naturally occurring malignant cancer cells and the colony of fourth naturally occurring malignant cancer cells under conditions sufficient to promote growth of the cancer cells;   measuring the area of expansion of the colony of third naturally occurring malignant cancer cells across the midline into the area of the colony of fourth naturally occurring malignant cancer cells that is accompanied by regression of the colony of fourth naturally occurring malignant cancer cells from the midline commensurate with the area of expansion of the colony of third naturally occurring malignant cancer cells;   identifying a first dominant cancer cell from the first naturally occurring malignant cancer cells and the second naturally occurring malignant cancer cells;   identifying a second dominant cancer cell from the third naturally occurring malignant cancer cells and the fourth naturally occurring malignant cancer cells; and   adjacently confronting the first dominant cancer cells and the second dominant cancer cells by plating on a culture plate in a growth medium a first dominant colony of the first dominant cancer cells and a second dominant colony of the second dominant cancer cells on directly opposite sides of a midline adjacent one another; culturing the first dominant colony and the second dominant colony under conditions sufficient to promote growth of the first dominant cancer cells and the second dominant cancer cells; and measuring the area of expansion of one of the first dominant colony and the second dominant colony across the midline that is accompanied by commensurate regression of the other of the first dominant colony and the second dominant colony from the midline.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the culture plate comprises unit markers for scoring the area of expansion of the dominant malignant cancer cells. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 5 , further comprising the step of quantifying a margin of dominance between the first primary malignant cancer cell and the second primary malignant cancer cell by assigning an alphanumeric score to each of the first primary malignant cancer cell and the second primary malignant cancer cell. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the unit markers are each assigned a pre-determine alphanumeric value, and wherein the step of assigning an alphanumeric score to each of the first primary malignant cancer cell and the second primary malignant cancer cell comprises awarding points for passage across the midline and subsequent occupation of a unit marker across the midline. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising ranking each confrontation convey their relative supremacy. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the colony of first malignant cancer cells and the colony of second malignant cancer cells are each derived from a homogeneous subculture of malignant cancer cells. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the colony of first malignant cancer cells and the colony of second malignant cancer cells are each derived from a single malignant cancer cell. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the colony of first malignant cancer cells and the colony of second malignant cancer cells plated each have about an equal number of cancer cells. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the colony of first malignant cancer cells and the colony of second malignant cancer cells plated each have about 10 4  cells or greater. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the colony of first malignant cancer cells and the colony of second malignant cancer cells plated each have about 10 5  cells or greater. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the colony of first malignant cancer cells and the colony of second malignant cancer cells plated each cover an area that is about equal. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein one of the first primary cancer cells and the second primary cancer cells is assigned as a dominant malignant cancer cell on the basis of an area of encroachment across the midline. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising the step of culturing a colony of the dominant malignant cancer cells with a colony of second dominant malignant cancer cells selected from a second confrontation performed in accordance with the method of  claim 1 . 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising the steps of separating the dominant malignant cancer cells from extracellular components and analyzing the extracellular components to identify an extracellular component responsible for the dominant properties of the malignant cancer cells. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the first colony of the first primary malignant cancer cells and the second colony of the second primary malignant cancer cells are cultured for a period of time and under conditions sufficient to allow the first colony of the first primary malignant cancer cells and the second colony of the second primary malignant cancer cells to compete against each other. 
     
     
         20 . A method for characterizing untreated target tumor cells, the method comprising the steps of:
 selecting, from a stock tumor bank loaded with a selection of previously known dominant tumor cells, a stock dominant tumor cell;
 adjacently confronting the untreated target tumor cells and the stock dominant tumor cell by plating on a culture plate in a growth medium a first colony of the target tumor cells and a second colony of the stock dominant tumor cells on directly opposite sides of a midline adjacent one another; 
 culturing the first colony of the untreated target tumor cells and the second colony of the stock dominant tumor cells under conditions sufficient to promote growth of the cancer cells; 
   measuring the area of expansion of the first colony of the untreated target tumor cells across the midline into the area of the second colony of the stock dominant tumor cells that is accompanied by regression of the second colony of the stock dominant tumor cells from the midline commensurate with the area of expansion of the first colony of the target tumor cells.