Efficient Propagation of Circulating Tumor Cells: A First Step for Probing Tumor Metastasis
1
Lombardi Cancer Center, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC 20007, USA
2
Department of Pathology, Center for Cell Reprogramming, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC 20007, USA
3
Hemostasis Branch, Division of Plasma Protein Therapeutics, Office of Tissues and Advanced Therapies, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD 20993, USA
4
Department of Pathology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
5
Department of Medicine, Medstar Hospital, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC 20007, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
These authors contributed equally to this work.
Cancers 2020, 12(10), 2784; https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers12102784
Received: 28 July 2020
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Revised: 15 September 2020
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Accepted: 25 September 2020
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Published: 28 September 2020
(This article belongs to the Section Molecular Cancer Biology)
Simple Summary
Cancer metastasis is responsible for most cancer-associated death. During metastasis, cells that escape the primary tumor into the circulatory system are known as circulating tumor cells. Previous attempts at growing circulating tumor cells in the lab have been hindered by low success rates. Using the novel system first reported here, we demonstrate a 100% (12/12 samples) success rate in culturing circulating tumor cells from metastatic breast cancer patients. Once propagated, we characterized the expression profiles of our cultures, verifying their origins as breast cancer cells. Furthermore, exploratory analysis identifies several key pathways and genes previously known to be associated with breast cancer progression and metastasis. Finally, we demonstrate that cultures grown in the presence of CD45+ cells exhibited higher growth potential ex vivo. Based on this system, we suggest that a reconsideration of the parameters for circulating tumor cell isolation should be undertaken.
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) represent a unique population of cells that can be used to investigate the mechanistic underpinnings of metastasis. Unfortunately, current technologies designed for the isolation and capture of CTCs are inefficient. Existing literature for in vitro CTC cultures report low (6−20%) success rates. Here, we describe a new method for the isolation and culture of CTCs. Once optimized, we employed the method on 12 individual metastatic breast cancer patients and successfully established CTC cultures from all 12 samples. We demonstrate that cells propagated were of breast and epithelial origin. RNA-sequencing and pathway analysis demonstrated that CTC cultures were distinct from cells obtained from healthy donors. Finally, we observed that CTC cultures that were associated with CD45+ leukocytes demonstrated higher viability. The presence of CD45+ leukocytes significantly enhanced culture survival and suggests a re-evaluation of the methods for CTC isolation and propagation. Routine access to CTCs is a valuable resource for identifying genetic and molecular markers of metastasis, personalizing the treatment of metastatic cancer patients and developing new therapeutics to selectively target metastatic cells.
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Keywords:
Cancer metastasis; circulating tumor cells; tumor-associated neutrophils; leukocytes; cell culture
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MDPI and ACS Style
Xiao, J.; McGill, J.R.; Stanton, K.; Kassner, J.D.; Choudhury, S.; Schlegel, R.; Sauna, Z.E.; Pohlmann, P.R.; Agarwal, S. Efficient Propagation of Circulating Tumor Cells: A First Step for Probing Tumor Metastasis. Cancers 2020, 12, 2784. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers12102784
AMA Style
Xiao J, McGill JR, Stanton K, Kassner JD, Choudhury S, Schlegel R, Sauna ZE, Pohlmann PR, Agarwal S. Efficient Propagation of Circulating Tumor Cells: A First Step for Probing Tumor Metastasis. Cancers. 2020; 12(10):2784. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers12102784
Chicago/Turabian StyleXiao, Jerry, Joseph R. McGill, Kelly Stanton, Joshua D. Kassner, Sujata Choudhury, Richard Schlegel, Zuben E. Sauna, Paula R. Pohlmann, and Seema Agarwal. 2020. "Efficient Propagation of Circulating Tumor Cells: A First Step for Probing Tumor Metastasis" Cancers 12, no. 10: 2784. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers12102784
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