CHROMOSOMAL-ABNORMALITIES OF A NEW NASOPHARYNGEAL CARCINOMA CELL-LINE(NPC-BM1) DERIVED FROM A BONE-MARROW METASTATIC LESION. (VOL 103, PG 52, 1998)

An epithelial cell line, NPC-BM1, 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 non-ke ratinizing, poorly differentiated carcinoma. NPC-BM1 cells grown as mo nolayers had a doubling time of 28.5 hours. Chromosome analysis showed that NPC-BM1 had the following features: 1) hypotetraploidy with a mo dal chromosome number of 87 (84-90); 2) numerically and structurally n ormal chromosomes 18; 3) numerical abnormalities without apparent stru ctural alterations on chromosomes 14, 16, 17, 19, and 20; 4) ten struc tural abnormalities, t(1;9))(p11;q11), t(3;?;4)(p13;?;q13), add(4p),de l(6p), i(8) (q10), der(?)t(?;p12)(?;p12),add(21)(p11), del(X)(q24), ad d(X)(q22), and marker 1 (M1), in all metaphases examined, which were f ound to be present in two to five cell lines from primary NPC tumors r eported previously; and 5) four other abnormalities, (2;?;2)(p11.2;?;q 21),t(11;22)(q11;q11),i(22)(q10), and marker 2 (M2), unique to this me tastatic cell line. To the best of our knowledge, NPC-BM1 is the first NPC cell line derived from a distant metastatic site. Further evaluat ion of this cell line and additional metastatic NPC cell lines as well as primary NPC cell lines with respect to relations between the timin g, karyotypic anomalies, and immunobiological characteristics in NPC p rogression and metastasis is warranted. (C) Elsevier Science Inc., 199 8.