Growth regulation of cancer metastases by their host organ

We analyzed mechanisms responsible for organ-specific metastasis by using two melanoma sublines derived from the same mouse tumor, of which one colonizes the lungs (F10) and the other colonizes the liver (L8) after intravenous injection. Both lines were obtained by selective growth in lung or liver after injection of tumor cells into a tail vein or portal vein. Contrary to common concepts, the cells of the liver-colonizing melanoma line do not accumulate preferentially in the liver after intravenous administration in vivo. However, the selective survival and proliferation of these melanoma cells in the target organ (liver) may be explained by the unexpected observation that they can be specifically stimulated to proliferate in the presence of hepatocytes, whereas the cells of the lung-colonizing line cannot. Growth promotion under coculture conditions in vitro was monitored both by thymidine incorporation into DNA and by increase in cell numbers. The proliferative stimulus is not mediated by an easily diffusible factor but rather depends upon direct contact between liver cells and those tumor cells that metastasize to that particular organ.