Abstract 5202: Human colon cancer cell lines contain subsets of cells with the capacity to initiate highly prolific clonal growth in soft agar culture and to form transplantable tumor xenografts in vivo

• Published in: Cancer research (Chicago, Ill.) Ill.), 2011-04, Vol.71 (8_Supplement), p.5202-5202
• Main Authors: Alley, Michael C., Hollingshead, Melinda G., Borgel, Suzanne D., Plater, Kevin, Burkett, Mark W., Anver, Miriam R., Yen, Brandon R., Hite, Karen M., Scudiero, Dominic A., Monks, Anne, Mertins, Susan D., Shoemaker, Robert H., Niederhuber, John E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0008-5472; 1538-7445
• DOI: 10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-5202

Various studies underscore the key role of cancer ‘stem cells’ in the initiation of experimental tumor xenografts from cells derived from patient tumor specimens. Implantation of limited numbers of cancer cells – even ‘single cells’ – which exhibit putative cancer ‘stem cell’ markers were reported to form tumors in mice, although several months were required to achieve palpable tumor masses. In the current study we assessed whether established human colon cancer cell lines still possess the functional capacity to initiate tumor formation from ‘single cell’ preparations. Results indicate that each of seven colon cancer cell lines was capable of soft agar colony formation in RPMI-1640 medium containing either 5-10% FBS or 15% serum substitute. Inoculation of 96-well plates by single cell sorting resulted in highly prolific colony formation by a subset of cells derived from each cell line. While the large majority of colonies achieving a size >60μ in diameter exhibited growth arrest within 3 weeks (