PMID: 11929839Apr 4, 2002Paper

Persistence of solitary mammary carcinoma cells in a secondary site: a possible contributor to dormancy

Cancer Research
George N NaumovA F Chambers

Abstract

Tumors can recur years after treatment, and breast cancer is especially noted for long periods of dormancy. The status of the cancer during this period is poorly understood. As a model to study mechanisms of dormancy, we used murine D2.0R mammary carcinoma cells, which are poorly metastatic but form occasional metastases in liver and other organs after long latency. Highly metastatic D2A1 cells provided a positive, metastatic control. Our goals were to learn how the cell lines differ in survival kinetics in a secondary site and to seek evidence for the source of D2.0R dormancy. In spontaneous metastasis assays from mammary fat pad injections, we found evidence for dormancy because of a persistence of large numbers of solitary cells in the liver. To quantify the fate of cells after arrival in liver, experimental metastasis assays were used. To permit identification of cells that had not divided, cells were labeled before injection with fluorescent nanospheres, which were diluted to undetectable levels by cell division. Cancer cells were injected i.v. to target them to the liver and coinjected with reference microspheres to monitor cell survival. Dormancy was defined as retention of nanosphere fluorescence in vivo, as well as neg...Continue Reading

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