Establishment and characterization of NCC-SS3-C1: a novel patient-derived cell line of synovial sarcoma

Synovial sarcoma is a rare malignancy of mesenchymal origin, characterized by a chromosomal translocation, t(X;18) (p11.2;q11.2). Wide surgical resection with radiation and cytotoxic chemotherapy is established as a standard treatment; however synovial sarcoma remains a high-grade sarcoma with poor prognosis, and novel anti-cancer agents and immunological approaches are currently being developed. The patient-derived cell line is a critical tool for basic and pre-clinical research. However, only a few patient-derived synovial sarcoma cell lines are publicly available from cell banks. Thus, the aim of this study was to establish and characterize a novel cell line for synovial sarcoma. Using a surgically resected tumor tissue from a 48-year-old female patient, we successfully established a cell line, named NCC-SS3-C1. NCC-SS3-C1 cells harbor an SS18-SSX1 fusion gene and exhibit moderate growth, spheroid formation, and invasion. We examined a range of proliferation-inhibiting effects of small molecule anti-cancer compounds, including FDA-approved anti-cancer drugs, using NCC-SS3-C1 cells, and identified anti-cancer drugs which inhibited the proliferation of NCC-SS3-C1 cells at the low concentration. We concluded that NCC-SS3-C1 would be a useful tool for basic and pre-clinical synovial sarcoma research.