A Model of Breast Cancer Micrometastasis in a Three-Dimensional (3D) Liver Spheroid for Testing an Antimetastatic Therapy

Research Overview

The moment a newly arrived cancer cell survives and begins proliferating at a metastatic site is rate-limiting — and the most promising drug target — yet models of that earliest stage were lacking. This method models breast cancer liver metastasis at precisely that transition: a differentiated tumor cell becoming an actively proliferating cell inside a 3D liver spheroid.

Unlike existing heterocellular metastasis models, the protocol captures initial colonization — the micrometastasis stage. It includes generating a fluorescent tumor cell line, sorting differentiated cells by FACS, preparing single liver cells, forming a liver spheroid in an agarose mold, and inducing tumor cell dedifferentiation within it.