CHROMOSOMAL-ABNORMALITIES OF A NEW NASOPHARYNGEAL CARCINOMA CELL-LINE(NPC-BM1) DERIVED FROM A BONE-MARROW METASTATIC LESION

An epithelial cell line, NPC-BMI, was established from a bone marrow b iopsy of a female Taiwanese patient with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC ). Histopathology of the bone marrow biopsy and xenografts grown in se vere combined immunodeficiency mice showed that the tumor was a nonker atinizing, poorly differentiated carcinoma. NPC-BM1 cells grown as mon olayers had a doubling time of 28.5 hours. Chromosome analysis showed that NPC-BM1 had the following features: 1) hypotetraploidy with a mod al chromosome number of 87 (84-90); 2) numerically and structurally no rmal chromosomes 18; 3) numerical abnormalities without apparent struc tural alterations on chromosomes 14, 16, 17, 19, and 20; 4) ten struct ural abnormalities, t(1;9)(p11;q11), t(3;?;4)(p13;?;q13), add(4p),del( 6p), i(18), (q10)k, der(?)t(?;12),(7;p11),add(21)(p11), del(X)(q24), a dd(X)(q22), and marker 1 (M1), in all metaphases examined, which were hound to be present in two to five cell lines from primary NPC tumors reported previously; and 5) four other abnormalities, (2;?;2)(p11.2;?; q21),t(11;22)(q11;q11),i(22)(q10), and marker 2 (M2), unique to this m etastatic cell line. To the best of our knowledge, NPC-BM1 is the firs t NPC cell line derived from a distant metastatic site. Further evalua tion of this cell line and additional metastatic NPC cell lines as wel l as primary NPC cell lines with respect to relations between the timi ng, karyotypic anomalies, and immunobiological characteristics in NPC progression and metastasis is warranted. (C) Elsevier Science Inc., 19 98.