Cadmium-induced malignant transformation of human prostate epithelial cells

Prostate cancer has become epidemic, and environmental factors such as cadm ium may be partly responsible. This study reports malignant transformation of the nontumorigenic human prostatic epithelial cell line RWPE-1 by ill vi tro cadmium exposure. The cadmium-transformed cells exhibited a loss of con tact inhibition irt vitro and rapidly formed highly invasive and occasional ly metastatic adenocarcinomas upon inoculation into mice. The transformed c ells also showed increased secretion of MMP-2 and MMP-9, a phenomenon obser ved in human prostate tumors and linked to aggressive behavior. Cadmium-ind uced malignant transformation of human prostate epithelial cells strongly f ortifies the evidence for a potential role of cadmium in prostate cancer.