Multi-faceted analyses of a highly metastatic human lung cancer cell line NCI-H460-LNM35 suggest mimicry of inflammatory cells in metastasis

This study established and characterized low-metastatic revertant and paren tal clones of a highly metastatic human lung cancer cell line, NCI-H460-LNM 35 (hereafter referred to as LNM35), Expression-profiling analysis revealed that up-regulation of various proinflammatory cytokines and angiogenic che motactic chemokines was present in LNM35, Further, while COX-2 itself is kn own to be inducible in inflammation, COX-2 expression levels correlated wel l with the capabilities of these clones for not only in vitro motility and invasion but also in vivo metastasis, and COX-2 inhibitors were shown for t he first time to reduce lung cancer metastasis in vivo. These findings sugg est that lung cancer cells may mimic inflammatory cells in the process of m etastasis.