In a lab why would it be necessary to subculture cancerous cells?

Question

Is this just so that more cells are available to analyse?

- also, is it possible that the cancerous cells could mutate in culture?

Answer 1

Cells are subcultured for several reasons: one of which is to make more available as you mention. Another reason is that some cell types when they become confluent start to grow in large clumps are detach from the flask bottom and die. However, a lot of this is cell line specific. I use an osteosarcoma cell line that grows to confluency and stops. I could probably just refresh the media once a week and they would be happy. I have a cervical carcinoma cell line that detaches and dies.

As far as the mutations go, cancerous cell lines (all cell lines for that matter) definitely undergo mutations with time and if you are studying the characteristics of a particular cancer it is important to do so with as few subcultures as possible since those cells that are best suited to growth in culture will quickly take over.