
[Cancer Research 60, 4033-4036, August 1, 2000]
© 2000 American Association for Cancer Research
Prostate Cancer and Other Xenografts from Cells in Peripheral Blood of Patients1
Thomas G. Pretlow2,
Stuart Schwartz,
Joseph M. Giaconia,
Alison L. Wright,
Heather A. Grimm,
Nancy L. Edgehouse,
John R. Murphy,
Sanford D. Markowitz,
James M. Jamison,
Jack L. Summers,
Clive R. Hamlin,
Gregory T. MacLennan,
Martin I. Resnick,
Theresa P. Pretlow and
Cindylou F. Connell
Departments of Pathology [T. G. P., J. M. G., A. L. W., H. A. G., N. L. E., C. R. H., G. T. M., T. P. P.], Human Genetics [S. S.], Medicine [J. R. M., S. D. M., C. F. C.], and Urology [M. I. R.], Case Western Reserve University Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio 44106, and Department of Urology, Summa Health System/Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, Rootstown, Ohio 44272 [J. M. J., J. L. S.]
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ABSTRACT
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Good models for the investigation of human prostate cancer are few.
Cells from approximately 9.221 ml of peripheral blood from patients
with metastatic prostate cancer or metastatic colon cancer were
injected s.c. into nude mice. Prostate cancer from 2 of 11 patients and
colon cancer from 1 of 3 patients were found to be growing as
metastases in the lungs of the nude mice. To our knowledge, this is the
first report of the formation of xenografts from carcinoma cells taken
directly from the peripheral blood of patients. Expanding circulating
cancer cells with this approach may have important translational
applications including: (a) development of models of
human cancers; and (b) sampling of cancers from specific
patients for novel molecular and therapeutic approaches.
 |
Introduction
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The treatment of metastatic prostate cancer that is refractory to
hormonal manipulation and of many other metastatic cancers is
difficult. Although different proportions of metastatic, hormonally
refractory prostate cancers respond to different therapeutic
approaches, it is very difficult to predict which kinds of therapeutic
approaches may benefit particular patients. Many other kinds of
metastatic carcinoma present similar problems. One might hope that
molecular or pharmacological studies of particular patients
metastatic tumors might allow the development of therapeutic approaches
to benefit particular patients. Characterization or growth in the
laboratory of primary tumors might be a useful step for some tumors;
however, as reviewed previously in detail (1)
, for many
years it has been known that patients diagnosed with prostate cancer
usually have more than one cancer (2)
, even in the very
earliest diagnosed stages of the disease (3)
. These
multiple, widely separated, primary prostatic carcinomas usually show
different genetic aberrations (4)
and are thought to be
independent in origin. It would be difficult to predict in patients
which of multiple primary prostatic carcinomas gave rise to metastases.
If one wished to characterize the cells from metastases in a patient
with a large tumor burden, it might be useful to examine circulating
carcinoma cells. We now report the growth of these circulating cells in
nude mice. The resultant xenografts might be useful for studies of
cancers from particular patients and for the development of prostate
cancer xenografts for a variety of research purposes.
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Materials and Methods
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Blood Cells for Mice.
In response to our request for 10 ml of blood from patients with
advanced, treatment-refractory metastatic cancer, we received 9.221
ml of blood from 14 patients (11 patients with prostate cancer and 3
patients with colon cancer). Blood from patients in this study was
obtained while consistently maintaining the anonymity of the patients.
Because the cells from one of the patients with metastatic prostate
cancer caused more frequent swelling at the site of injection in the
nude mouse hosts over a more protracted period than the others, we
requested and obtained another sample of the same patients blood 5.5
months after the first phlebotomy sample. Cells from the second blood
sample were transplanted into mice that had not received previous
injections of cells.
Phlebotomy was performed with a blood collection tube anticoagulated
with lithium heparin (product number 366485; Becton Dickinson and
Company, Franklin Lakes, NJ) and transported from the clinic to the
laboratory in an ice bath. Under sterile conditions, blood was
transferred to a 50-ml beaker. It was then drawn in aliquots up to 5 ml
into 5-ml, disposable syringes without needles (product number 309603;
Becton Dickinson and Company). The orifices of the syringes were wiped
to remove any adherent blood. Syringes were allowed to stand in a
vertical position with the orifice pointed upward for 30 min at 4°C
while RBCs settled. Leaving the sedimented RBCs in the syringe, the
pale yellow, leukocyte-rich plasma was then gently expelled from the
syringes through bent, U-shaped, 16-gauge needles (product number
305198; Becton Dickinson and Company). Nucleated cells in the
leukocyte-rich plasma were counted with a hemocytometer. The plasma was
centrifuged at 97 x g for 7.5 min at 4°C.
The plasma was discarded, and the cells that had sedimented during
centrifugation were resuspended in 1.0 ml of Matrigel (Collaborative
Research, Bedford, MA) at 4°C. The Matrigel and the sedimented WBCs,
variable numbers of erythrocytes that had not sedimented with the other
erythrocytes in the syringes (usually approximately 1.53 times as
many erythrocytes as nucleated cells), and any circulating tumor cells
were drawn into 1-ml syringes. For each patient, two mice were injected
s.c. with 0.5 ml of cells in Matrigel adjacent to the scapula through
an 18-gauge needle as described previously (5
, 6)
. Mice
received 12.5 mg of sustained-release testosterone (Innovative Research
of America, Sarasota, FL) s.c., and these sustained-release doses of
testosterone were replaced every 3 months as described previously
(5, 6, 7)
. Swellings at the sites of injection were measured
weekly with calipers.
Cells from Injection Sites.
From one mouse that received injections from one patients blood
cells, the injection site was digested to obtain a cell suspension. The
tissue at the injection site was dissociated by serial digestion of
minced tumor with 0.1% Pronase E (VWR Scientific Products,
Cleveland, OH) in Jokliks modification of MEM. This method is
described in detail (8)
in the only, to our knowledge,
published, quantitative comparison of collagenase, Pronase, and trypsin
for the dissociation of human primary prostate cancers; it has been
used for the dissociation of prostate cancer xenografts
(5, 6, 7)
. Cells obtained in suspension were injected into
other animals in 0.5 ml of Matrigel as described above.
Histopathology.
Animals that received cells from the first 10 patients were killed 68
months after cell injection. The remaining animals were killed 47
months after cell injection. Sections of the sites of injection and
sections of lung, liver, and lymph nodes were examined histologically
by two pathologists.
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Results
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We have found the least dimension to be the most indicative of the
growth of prostate cancer cells injected into nude mice in Matrigel
(5)
. As detailed in Table 1
of a previous publication
(5)
, least dimensions of 3 mm are common and least
dimensions of 4 mm are less common in primary prostate cancer
xenografts that fail to grow progressively and become transplantable.
Most of the 20 animals (2 mice/patient) that received injections from
the first 10 patients exhibited few or no swellings >2 mm in least
dimension at the sites of injection, which were monitored weekly over a
period of 68 months. All of these mice were killed 68 months after
cell injection. Histological examination of these sites of injection
revealed no viable tumor cells but abundant fibrosis and some chronic
inflammatory changes. No metastases were identified in any of these
mice by gross or histopathological examination.
Based on these data from the first 10 patients, the remaining animals
that received injections of nucleated cells from five additional
phlebotomies were killed. The sites of injection were similar to those
described above; however, to our surprise, poorly differentiated
metastatic carcinomas were observed grossly and confirmed
histopathologically in the lungs of animals that had received cells
from two prostate cancer patients and one patient with colon cancer
(Table 1)
. Only one of the two mice that received cells from a colon cancer
patient had a grossly visible lung metastasis that was confirmed
histologically; the other mouse lacked any evidence of cancer. Both
mice that received cells from one of the prostate cancer patients
developed lung metastases; one had grossly visible metastases, and the
other had metastases that could only be identified microscopically. As
will be elaborated below, both samples of blood cells obtained from a
second prostate cancer patient produced pulmonary metastases; the two
phlebotomies from this prostate cancer patient were 5.5 months apart.
This prostate cancer patient from whom we received two samples of blood
is of particular interest. One of the two mice that received the first
injections of cells from this patient developed swellings that
vacillated between 2 and 3 mm in least dimension. This mouse, in
contrast to most mice, spent the largest proportion of the first 5
months after injection with an injection site that was 3 mm in minimum
dimension. Because we had observed a very similar pattern in the first
generation of CWR21, a prostate cancer xenograft that was first
described in 1993 (5)
and is still being passaged serially
in our laboratory, the injection site of this mouse was transplanted.
Neither of the two original recipients of blood cells had histological
evidence of cancer. The transplanted injection site was a very small
piece of tissue (0.15 g) and was used entirely as a source of cells in
suspension; i.e., none of this small piece of tissue was
used for histological examination. A cell suspension was obtained by
digesting the tissue fragment from the injection site with Pronase E as
described above. The resultant 0.83 million cells were centrifuged and
resuspended in 1 ml of Matrigel. Half of this cell suspension in
Matrigel was injected into each of two mice. These mice were killed 4.5
months later, when the experiment was terminated. One of the mice had a
pulmonary metastasis that was grossly visible and histologically
consistent with prostatic carcinoma (Fig. 1
).

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Fig. 1. Pulmonary metastases resulting from injection of
peripheral blood cells collected from prostate cancer patient 2 on two
occasions. H&E stain. A, pulmonary metastasis in a mouse
resulting from injection in Matrigel of cells obtained in suspension
from the injection site of an animal that received cells from the
peripheral blood of prostate cancer patient 2. B,
pulmonary metastasis in a mouse resulting from injection in Matrigel of
cells obtained directly from the blood of the same prostate cancer
patient 5.5 months after the collection of blood cells injected into
the mouse described above in A.
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Because of the frequent swelling of the injection site in the mouse
over a period of 5 months, we obtained a second sample of blood from
the same patient 5.5 months after the first sample of blood had been
received. Cells obtained from the second sample of blood from this
patient were injected into two mice as described above. Because
no consistent growth was observed at the injection sites of the cells
from the first 10 patients after 68 months, the experiment was
terminated 4.5 months after injection of cells from the blood of the
patient from whom two samples were obtained. One of the two mice that
received cells from the second phlebotomy sample from this patient
showed a pulmonary metastasis (Fig. 1B
) that was
histologically very similar to the metastasis that resulted from the
blood obtained in the first phlebotomy sample (Fig. 1A
),
which had been obtained 5.5 months earlier.
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Discussion
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As reviewed in detail (9
, 10)
, the presence of cancer
cells in the peripheral circulations of some patients with carcinomas
has been known for more than a century (11)
. Our
laboratory reported the purification and culture of malignant
melanocytes from patients with metastatic melanoma in 1986
(12)
. Success in the initiation of cell lines in culture
from prostate cancer has generally been <0.1%, as reviewed previously
(1
, 13)
. There has been a marked improvement in the
successful transplantation of human prostate cancers as xenografts in
this decade, as reviewed in detail in Ref. 13
.
Investigators from several laboratories have succeeded in initiating
serially transplantable xenografts from prostate cancers in
approximately 510% of cases (13)
.
In 1980, Gittes (14)
reviewed attempts to start prostate
cancer xenografts and concluded, "The incidence of take of
prostate cancer has been close to zero." In 1990, Kleinman et
al. (15)
published the first of several reports
(16
, 17)
from her laboratory that showed that the use of
Matrigel as a vehicle for injection of tumor cells into nude mice
greatly increased the tumorigenicity of small cell lung cancer cells
and MCF7 breast cancer cells. There have been several subsequent
reports from her laboratory that have confirmed this finding in a
variety of other cell systems (reviewed in Refs. 1
and
13
). In 1991, Pretlow et al. (18)
reported that the use of Matrigel as a vehicle for injection reduced
the number of cells required for the transplantation of tumors from
commonly used prostate cancer cell lines. This reduction in the number
of cells required for transplantation was 25,000-fold for PC-3 and
7,000-fold for DU145. In the serial transplantation of the primary
human prostate cancer xenografts established in our laboratory
(5)
, we have found that the use of Matrigel as a vehicle
for injection has decreased by >1,000-fold the number of cells
required for the transplantation of cell suspensions from all of our
xenografts. In contrast, the use of Matrigel as a vehicle for injection
has not affected the amount of minced xenograft required for successful
transplantation of these xenografts.
Injected in Matrigel, PC-3 cells are tumorigenic down to 20
cells/injection. Xenografts from two (CWR22 and CWR91) of the three
patients from whose primary prostate cancers we obtained serially
transplantable xenografts can be transplanted with <1000 cells. In
considering (a) the very small numbers of cells required for
the propagation of some prostate cancer cells as xenografts and
(b) the fact that Matrigel affects the tumorigenicity of
cells in suspension much more than the tumorigenicity of minced tissue,
we decided to investigate the possible tumorigenicity of prostate
cancer cells circulating in blood. As our first activity, we selected
only patients with advanced metastatic disease.
For the experimental development of customized therapy for patients
with advanced metastatic cancers, it would seem likely that the
characterization of cells that have entered the circulations of these
patients would be of considerable interest. Perhaps the molecular
characterization of the cancer cells in the circulation would allow the
development of new systems of classification that would permit a more
sophisticated selection of alternative therapies now in use. The
development of xenografts from these cells may allow a more
sophisticated testing of therapies in vivo, particularly for
patients like those with prostate cancer, who often survive for years
after metastases have developed (i.e., for patients whose
cancer progression is sufficiently slow to allow xenografts to
be started in advance of the time when alternative therapies have to be
initiated).
One might hope that there might be clinical or pathological
characteristics that would allow one to distinguish the patients whose
tumors grew from those patients whose tumors did not grow. There were
no such characteristics that we were able to identify. None of the
three patients whose tumors grew as xenografts (metastatic to the mouse
lungs) had clinical or laboratory evidence of pulmonary or hepatic
metastases. The patient with colon cancer had her primary tumor
resected in 1996. It recurred in 1998; however, the only tumor
identified in 1998 and later, when we obtained blood in 1999, was a
tumor in the pelvis near the site of origin of the primary tumor. She
and both prostate cancer patients had been examined by computerized
tomography in a field that included the liver <6 months before the
drawing of blood from which xenografts were obtained. Physical
examination, computerized tomography, and blood analyses (for bilirubin
levels, alkaline phosphatase activities, and so forth) at the time of
phlebotomy and more recently failed to detect any evidence of hepatic
abnormalities in any of the three patients. The two prostate cancer
patients had metastases to the bone and lymph nodes; however, no other
organ systems were involved by metastases that could be detected.
To our knowledge, this is the first reported growth of xenografts from
the blood of patients with metastatic carcinomas. The method described
here likely could be improved in many ways if the development of
xenografts from patients with metastatic cancers were found to provide
new avenues for the development and selection of more effective
therapies. We used 9.221 ml of blood; larger numbers of cancer cells
could be obtained from larger samples of blood. It seems likely that
leukopheresis could be used to obtain much larger numbers of cells for
transplantation. Ghossein et al. (19)
have
reported the enrichment of prostate cancer cells from the blood of
patients with magnetic beads coated with the Ber-EP4 antibody that
reacts with many human epithelial cells. Previously, Pretlow et
al. (12)
used gradient sedimentation and culture in
soft agar for the purification of malignant melanocytes from the blood
of patients with malignant melanoma. Pretlow et al.
(20)
have reviewed other techniques for the purification
of cancer cells. The purification of neoplastic cells from the blood of
patients with metastatic cancer may facilitate the generation of
xenografts from a larger proportion of patients. The treatment of
animals with growth factors either systemically or at the site of the
transplanted cells might facilitate the growth of xenografts from cells
in the peripheral circulations of patients with metastatic tumors.
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FOOTNOTES
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The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
1 Supported in part by NIH Grants CA57179,
CA43703, CA66725, and DK51347 and by American Institute for Cancer
Research Grants AICR98B013 and AICR97048. 
2 To whom requests for reprints should be
addressed, at Institute of Pathology, Case Western Reserve University,
2085 Adelbert Road, Cleveland, OH 44106. 
Received 2/21/00.
Accepted 6/16/00.
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