Understanding Clonal Complexity Of A Tumor Xenograft Model Via Cellular Barcoding Technology

Recent advances in next-generation sequencing have revealed the presence of genetic heterogeneity and clonal evolution within tumors. Intratumoral heterogeneity has been implicated in the disease progression, metastasis, therapeutic responses and development of drug resistance. Although cancer cell line xenograft models have been extensively used in cancer research to test drug efficacy, it is unknown how much clonal heterogeneity is maintained in the process of cell line xenograft establishment. In order to quantitatively assess the clonal complexity in xenograft models, here we applied a cellular barcoding technology using the HCC827 cell line. HCC827 is a non-small cell lung cancer cell line containing an exon 19 deletion which has been shown to be clinically relevant due to its initial response to EGFR inhibitors followed by resistance. This barcoding tool allowed us to label each individual cell with one unique DNA barcode via lentiviral infection and monitor the clonal heterogeneity within the implanted cell population by quantifying the number of unique barcodes. We were able to estimate the percentage of implanted clones that actually contributed to the formation of cell line xenografts. This study provides valuable insight on the clonal diversity present in xenograft models, which will further elucidate the heterogeneous nature of tumors. Citation Format: Justina X. Caushi, Hyo-eun C. Bhang, Jie Li, Iris Kao, Viveksagar Krishnamurthy Radhakrishna, Vesselina G. Cooke, Joshua M. Korn, David A. Ruddy, Shailaja Kasibhatla, Frank Stegmeier. Understanding clonal complexity of a tumor xenograft model via cellular barcoding technology. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 3240. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-3240