Identification of Metastasis-prone Lung Adenocarcinoma Cell Population That Is Sensitive to Notch Inhibition

Tumor cells that give rise to metastatic disease are a primary cause of cancer-related death and have not been fully elucidated in patients with lung cancer. Here, we addressed this question by using tissues from a mouse that develops metastatic lung adenocarcinoma owing to expression of mutant K-ras and p53. We identified a metastasis-prone population of tumor cells that differed from those with low metastatic capacity on the basis of having sphere-forming capacity in Matrigel cultures, increased expression of CD133 and Notch ligands, and relatively low tumorigenicity in syngeneic mice. Knockdown of jagged1 or pharmacologic inhibition of its downstream mediator phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase abrogated the metastatic but not the tumorigenic activity of these cells. We conclude from these studies on a mouse model of lung adenocarcinoma that CD133 and Notch ligands mark a population of metastasis-prone tumor cells and that the efficacy of Notch inhibitors in metastasis prevention should be explored.

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Yang Y, Ahn YH, Gibbons DL, Zang Y, Lin W, Thilaganathan N, Alvarez CA, Moreira DC, Creighton CJ, Gregory PA, Goodall GJ, Kurie JM