Abstract
A human prostate tumour cell line, LNCaP C4-2, when injected into athymic male nude mice, produced tumours containing: (1) only human cancer cells similar to those injected; (2) only murine stromal cells containing abnormal chromosome constitutions; or (3) both human prostate cancer cells similar to those injected and the transformed murine stromal cells with altered chromosome constitutions. Karyotypic analysis of murine metaphases from all the host-derived tumours showed mostly pseudodiploid chromosome constitutions, with multiple copies (amplification) of mouse chromosome 15 and the absence of a typical Y chromosome. Fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis of these murine cells, using a biotin-labelled total human DNA painting probe, further demonstrated the absence of human DNA and the presence of only mouse metaphase and interphase cells in these transformed stromal cells. These results suggest that cancer cells are capable of inducing neoplastic transformation in stromal cells of the host organ by some, as yet unknown, epigenetic mechanism(s).
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Pathak, S., Nemeth, M., Multani, A. et al. Can cancer cells transform normal host cells into malignant cells?. Br J Cancer 76, 1134–1138 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.1997.524
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.1997.524
- Springer Nature Limited
This article is cited by
-
Cancer cell’s neuroendocrine feature can be acquired through cell-cell fusion during cancer-neural stem cell interaction
Scientific Reports (2020)
-
RANK-mediated signaling network and cancer metastasis
Cancer and Metastasis Reviews (2014)
-
Real-time PCR-based assay to quantify the relative amount of human and mouse tissue present in tumor xenografts
BMC Biotechnology (2011)
-
Stroma–epithelium crosstalk in prostate cancer
Asian Journal of Andrology (2009)