Ex vivo expansion of CTCs in culture isolated by size from patients with melanoma.

e21046 Background: To date there are no studies demonstrating the ability of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) isolated from patients to grow ex-vivo in culture. Most of our knowledge on the mechanisms of cancer metastasis has been obtained from CTCs of mouse models. In human, a main issue for studying circulating melanoma cells subpopulations and constructing tumor models is to be able to grow CTCs from patients. Here we defined optimized conditions to isolate CTCs alive and to culture them using the ScreenCell technology. Methods: CTCs were isolated alive by size using a ScreenCell device from 6 ml blood of 11 patients with melanoma at diagnosis and before surgical excision. Cells were cultured directly on a porous and high adhesion filter with optimized culture conditions. The filter was also used as a crossing barrier for cell invasion assay. After 15 days culture, cells were fixed and immunohistochemically stained for proliferative, hypoxia and invasive phenotype markers. Results: After 5 daysunder spec...