Establishment of a New Scirrhous Gastric Cancer Cell Line with FGFR2 Overexpression, OCUM-14

The prognosis of scirrhous gastric carcinoma (SGC), which is characterized by rapid infiltration and proliferation of cancer cells accompanied by extensive stromal fibrosis, is extremely poor. In this study, we report the establishment of a unique SGC cell line from a gastric cancer patient in whom an autopsy was performed.

A new SGC cell line, OCUM-14, was established from malignant ascites of a male patient with SGC. A postmortem autopsy was performed on the patient. Characterization of OCUM-14 cells was analyzed by microscopic examination, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis, immunohistochemical examination, CCK-8 assay, and in vivo assay.

OCUM-14 cells grew singly or in clusters, and were floating and round-shaped. Most OCUM-14 cells had many microvilli on their surfaces. The doubling time was 43.1 h, and the subcutaneous inoculation of 1.0 × 10⁷ OCUM-14 cells into mice resulted in 50% tumor formation. mRNA expressions of fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR2) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) were observed in OCUM-14 cells. FGFR2, but not HER2, overexpression was found in OCUM-14 cells. The heterogeneous overexpression of FGFR2 was also found in both the primary tumor and metastatic lesions of the peritoneum, lymph node, bone marrow, and lung of the patient. The FGFR2 inhibitors AZD4547 and BGJ398 significantly decreased the growth of OCUM-14 cells, while paclitaxel and 5-fluorouracil significantly decreased the proliferation of OCUM-14 cells, but cisplatin did not.

A new gastric cancer cell line, OCUM-14, was established from SGC and showed FGFR2 overexpression. OCUM-14 might be useful for elucidating the characteristic mechanisms of SGC and clarifying the effect of FGFR2 inhibitors on SGC.