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Background: A trend of stage-by-stage increase in tumorsphere (TS) formation from glioma samples has been reported. Despite this trend, not all surgical specimens give rise to TSs, even World Health Organization (WHO) grade IV gliomas. Furthermore, it has been reported that differences in overall survival of primary glioblastoma patients depends on the propensity of their tumors to form TSs. However, the weights of fresh specimens vary from one surgical isolate to the next. Methods: Accordingly, we evaluated the relationship between the weights of surgical specimens in WHO grade IV gliomas with the capacity to isolate TSs. Thirty-five fresh WHO grade IV glioma specimens were separated into two groups, based on whether they were positive or negative for TS isolation, and the relationship between TS isolation and weight of surgical specimens was assessed. Results: We observed no significant difference in the weights of surgical samples in the two groups, and found that the optimal weight of specimens for TSs isolation was 500 mg. Conclusion: Thus, contrary to our expectations, the ability to isolate TSs from WHO grade IV glioma specimens was not related to the weight of fresh specimens.

Background With the continuing development of new anti-cancer drugs comes a need for preclinical experimental models capable of predicting the clinical activity of these novel agents in cancer patients. However existing models have a limited ability to recapitulate the clinical characteristics and associated drug sensitivity of tumors. Among the more promising approaches for improving preclinical models is direct implantation of patient-derived tumor tissue into immunocompromised mice, such as athymic nude or non-obese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficient (NOD/SCID) mice. In the current study, we attempted to develop patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models using tissue fragments from surgical samples of brain tumors. Methods In this approach, tiny tissue fragments of tumors were biopsied from eight brain tumor patients—seven glioblastoma patients and one primitive neuroectodermal tumor patient. Two administration methods—a cut-down syringe and a pipette—were used to implant tissue fragments from each patient into the brains of athymic nude mice. Results In contrast to previous reports, and contrary to our expectations, we found that none of these fragments from brain tumor biopsies resulted in the successful establishment of xenograft tumors. Conclusions These results suggest that fragments of surgical specimens from brain tumor patients are unsuitable for implementation of brain tumor PDX models, and instead recommend other in vivo testing platforms for brain tumors, such as cell-based brain tumor models. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12935-016-0319-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.