Deriving Breast Cancer’s Primary Cultures from Patients' Tumor Biopsies in Indonesia Using Explant and Enzymatic Methods

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common cause of death in women globally with high rates of heterogeneity. The development of breast cancer treatment is still constrained because of the different responses to its therapy. The use of primary breast cancer culture is invaluable because it provides the same properties as breast cancer itself. Primary culture is used as a tool to determine the proliferative ability of breast cancer cells. However, the use of optimum methods in cultivating primary culture must be evaluated because of the unstable nature of primary culture. In this study, we investigate the optimum method for culturing cells derived from the tumor biopsies of breast cancer patients in Indonesia by comparing explant and enzymatic methods. Breast cancer tissues were obtained from five breast cancer patients, who underwent surgery and incision biopsies. Tissues were further cultured by explant and enzymatic methods. The cell cultures were observed daily using a microscope for up to 30 days. The results showed that the cells cultured using the enzymatic method for more than 16 h were susceptible to microbiome contamination in the following days after enzymatic digestion, while those cultured using the explant method grew well for 30 days. The findings of this research suggested that the explant method gave better results compared with the enzymatic method. The findings of this study provide insight into the optimum conditions for the primary culture of breast cancer cells.