Colorectal Cancer Liver Metastases Form Xenografts Enriched in Markers of Tumor Initiating Cells

Colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of cancer and second leading cause of mortality from cancer. Metastasis is the most frequent cause of death in CRC, which most commonly occurs in the liver. Tumors are believed to harbor subpopulations of cells, termed tumor initiating cells (TIC), that facilitate tumor growth and metastasis. CD133, CD44, and CD24 have all been proposed as markers of TIC within primary CRC tumors (CRC-primary). We have recently established xenografts from resected colorectal liver metastases (CRC-LM) and a primary CRC to further study the biology of these tumors. In this study, we examined the difference in the prevalence of the TIC markers in xenografts derived from 3 CRC-LM and a primary CRC.