Establishment of a continuous tumor-cell line (panc-1) from a human carcinoma of the exocrine pancreas.

An epithelioid cell line, started from a human pancreatic carcinoma of ductal cell origin, has been maintained in culture for over 2 years and has been subcultured more than 40 times. The PANC-1 cell line has a doubling time of 52 h and G6PD activity of the slow mobility of B type. Chromosome studies show a modal number of 63 with three distinct marker chromosomes and a small ring chromosome. The malignant nature of the PANC-1 cell line was verified by: (1) the ready growth of PANC-1 cells in soft agar and on top of a fibroblast monolayer; and (2) the formation of a progressively growing anaplastic carcinoma after injection of a nude-athymic mouse with PANC-1 cells.