Preclinical Studies Using Newly Established Cell Lines from Common Cancers in Asia

Genome-wide genetic information in about 1,000 cancer cell lines is available on COSMIC DB（Sanger Center, UK）, and on recent NGS analyses（Klijin C et al., Nat Biotechnol 2015）; however, among them, only 28 cell lines are derived from GC. Since driver gene mutation frequency in a certain cancer is often less than 5%, the establishment of cell lines from each patient to be analyzed is desired for functional selection of driver gene mutations. Furthermore, almost all of the 28 GC cell lines were established many years ago, thereby, the clinical and pathological information is insufficient. The wait is on for the establishment of new GC cell lines, especially from metastatic sites after therapy. Peritoneal metastasis is most frequent in GCs, especially diffuse-type GCs. In 2016, we successfully established 13 diffuse-type GC cell lines from the cancer ascites of 12 patients. In collaboration with the Division of Genetics, we have totally established 84 diffuse-type GC cell lines（National Cancer Center Stomach Cancer（NSC）series）from 48 patients, and also established 18 pancreatic and ovarian cancer cell lines, and more. We are conducting omics analyses for gene expression and copy number variation, and hot spot- and genome wide-gene alteration in these cell lines. Moreover, for in vivo preclinical study, their tumorigenicity and histopathological characteristics in the xenograft, such as fibroblast rich-, hypovascular-, and dormant-state, were evaluated. Through collaboration with five pharmaceutical industries, in vitro and in vivo preclinical studies were conducted to derivate clinical trials in the EPOC.

The list of cell lines established from patients’ ascites（updated on 31 August 2017）

• Diffuse-type gastric cancer 84 cell lines
• Gastroesophageal junction cancer 1 cell lines
• Pancreatic cancer 18 cell lines
• Ovarian cancer 4 cell lines
• Liposarcoma 2 cell lines
• Gallbladder cancer 1 cell lines
• Mesotelioma 1 cell lines
• Breast cancer 1 cell lines