Distinct organ-specific metastatic potential of individual breast cancer cells and primary tumors

We used bioluminescence imaging to reveal patterns of metastasis formation by human breast cancer cells in immunodeficient mice. Individual cells from a population established in culture from the pleural effusion of a breast cancer patient showed distinct patterns of organ-specific metastasis. Single-cell progenies derived from this population exhibited markedly different abilities to metastasize to the bone, lung, or adrenal medulla, which suggests that metastases to different organs have different requirements. Transcriptomic profiling revealed that these different single-cell progenies similarly express a previously described "poor-prognosis" gene expression signature. Unsupervised classification using the…

• HH
  Howard Hughes Medical Institute
• BU
  Brown University
• MS
  Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
• NI
  National Institutes of Health

  Awards: P01-CA94060, GM07739, 10021