Effect of human tumor cells on platelet aggregation: potential relevance to pattern of metastasis

Tumor metastasis may be facilitated by interaction of tumor cells with platelets. It is not known, however, whether solid tumors which have predisposition to pulmonary metastasis affect platelets differently than lymphoid tumors, which rarely spread to lungs. We therefore examined the effects of cultured osteogenic sarcoma (MG-63, U2-OS), as well as leukemia (NALM-16, LAZ-221, K-562) and lymphoma (RAJI, MOlt 4) cells, on human platelet aggregation. Human osteogenic sarcoma (MG-63) cells alone induced platelet aggregation, whereas U2-OS cells induced platelet aggregation only after preincubation of platelets with subthreshold concentrations of epinephrine. In contrast, neither leukemia nor lymphoma cells affected platelet aggregation. These observations suggest that the platelet proaggregatory potential of tumor cells is variable and that the platelet stimulatory effects of osteogenic sarcoma cells may relate to their high risk of pulmonary metastasis.