Quantitative analysis of cancer metastasis using an avian embryo model

During metastasis cancer cells disseminate from the primary tumor, invade into surrounding tissues, and spread to distant organs. Metastasis is a complex process that can involve many tissue types, span variable time periods, and often occur deep within organs, making it difficult to investigate and quantify. In addition, the efficacy of the metastatic process is influenced by multiple steps in the metastatic cascade making it difficult to evaluate the contribution of a single aspect of tumor cell behavior. As a consequence, metastasis assays are frequently performed in experimental animals to provide a necessarily realistic context in which to study metastasis. Unfortunately, these models are further complicated by their complex physiology. The chick embryo is a unique in vivo model that overcomes many limitations to studying metastasis, due to the accessibility of the chorioallantoic membrane (CAM), a well-vascularized extra-embryonic tissue located underneath the eggshell that is receptive to the xenografting of tumor cells (figure 1). Moreover, since the chick embryo is naturally immunodeficient, the CAM readily supports the engraftment of both normal and tumor tissues. Most importantly, the avian CAM successfully supports most cancer cell characteristics including growth, invasion, angiogenesis, and remodeling of the microenvironment. This makes the model exceptionally useful for the investigation of the pathways that lead to cancer metastasis and to predict the response of metastatic cancer to new potential therapeutics. The detection of disseminated cells by species-specific Alu PCR makes it possible to quantitatively assess metastasis in organs that are colonized by as few as 25 cells. Using the Human Epidermoid Carcinoma cell line (HEp3) we use this model to analyze spontaneous metastasis of cancer cells to distant organs, including the chick liver and lung. Furthermore, using the Alu-PCR protocol we demonstrate the sensitivity and reproducibility of the assay as a tool to analyze and quantitate intravasation, arrest, extravasation, and colonization as individual elements of metastasis.