[Characterization of primary and metastatic cell lines established from a patient with renal cell carcinoma]

Evaluation of the clonal relationship between primary and metastatic renal cell carcinoma by comparative genomic hybridization

The outcome of patients with renal cell carcinoma is limited by the development of metastasis after nephrectomy. To evaluate the genetic basis underlying metastatic progression of human renal cell carcinoma in vivo, we performed a comparative genomic hybridization analysis in 32 clear-cell renal-cell carcinoma metastases. The most common losses involved chromosomes 3p (25%), 4q (28%), 6q (28%), 8p (31%), and 9p (47%). The most common gains were detected at 17q (31%) and Xq (28%). There was one high-level gene amplification at chromosome 11q22-23. The mean number of aberrations in lymph node (4.8 +/- 2.8) and lung metastases (6.2 +/- 4.0) was lower than in other hematogenous metastases (11.5 +/- 8.7, P < 0.05), suggesting that hematogenous dissemination is linked to an acquisition of complex genomic alterations. As genetic differences between primary tumors and metastases give information on genetic changes that have contributed to the metastatic process, relative DNA sequence copy number changes in 19 matched tumor pairs were compared. Genomic changes, which frequently occurred in metastases but not in the corresponding primary tumor were losses of 8p and 9p and gains of 17q and Xq. An abnormal function of genes in these regions may contribute to the metastatic process. According to a statistical analysis of shared genetic changes in matched tumor pairs, a high probability of a common clonal progenitor was found in 11 of 19 patients (58%). Six metastases (32%) were genetically almost completely different from the primary, suggesting that detection of genomic alterations in primary tumors gives only a restricted view of the biological properties of metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

Different susceptibilities of lymphokine-activated killer cells (LAK cells) among primary and metastatic renal cell carcinoma derived from the same patient

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the susceptibility of primary renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and metastatic RCC to lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cells using three RCC cell lines derived from the primary and metastatic tumours in a male patient with advanced RCC.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Three RCC cell lines (named HANKS) were derived from a 44-year-old man with advanced RCC. HANKS-Pr, HANKS-Lu and HANKS-LN were established from the primary lesion and the metastatic lung and lymph node lesions, respectively. The susceptibility of HANKS cell lines to 18 different LAK cells obtained from either patients with urological cancer or from healthy volunteers was studied. The three groups of LAK cells were divided as follows: (A) LAK cells from RCC patients (n = 6); (B) LAK cells from patients with transitional cell carcinoma (TCC)/prostatic carcinoma (CaP) (n = 4) and (C) healthy volunteers (n = 8). A 51Cr-releasing cytotoxic assay was used to determine susceptibility.

RESULTS

The mean percentage lysis of the HANKS cell lines to the 18 allogenic LAK cells were 28.1% in HANKS-Pr, 20.2% in HANKS-Lu and 10.4% in HANKS-LN. The susceptibility of HANKS-LN to LAK cells was significantly lower than that of HANKS-Pr and HANKS-Lu in all three groups (P < 0.05). In contrast, the susceptibility of HANKS-Pr was significantly higher than HANKS-Lu in group A only (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSION

This is the first report to describe the different susceptibilities of primary RCC and metastatic RCC derived from the same patient. HANKS-LN itself might be the least susceptible to LAK cells because it was not related to the source of LAK cells. Furthermore, RCC may affect the cytotoxicity of LAK cells to HANKS-Pr. These data indicate there are at least two different types of mechanisms leading to the different susceptibilities of HANKS cells to LAK cells.