In vitro Characterization of Unique Cohorts in Salivary Mucoepidermoid Carcinoma

Migratory tumor cells are groups of cells that can be aggressive and can be responsible for metastasis to distant sites. These migrating tumor cells are seen in many different types of cancer including breast, colorectal, and prostate cancers. Once individual cancer cells enter the circulatory system after breaking away from the primary tumor, they can migrate to distant sites. During this process, there are several changes that occur in these cancer cells, including but not limited to altered interaction with the extracellular matrix (ECM) of surrounding tissues, changes in their adhesion protein expression, and modifications of their morphology–all of these changes allow the cells to migrate through the basement membrane of the endothelial cells and enter the bloodstream. In our study of salivary gland cancers, we observed groups of cancer cells with greater proliferative and migratory profiles than the regular cancer cells and we designated them as “cancer cell cohorts”. Though these cohorts are found in different cancer types, little is known on how they form and behave. This study aims to show these cancer cell cohorts form a subgroup of cancer cells that exhibit significantly enhanced proliferation, migration, and basement membrane changes that renders the tumor more aggressive. By evaluating the location and abundance of cell to cell adhesion proteins, the data suggests a difference between the original salivary gland cancer cell cultures and cancer cohort sub-cultures. Migration assays comparing the migration rates between normal salivary gland cells, cancerous salivary gland cells, and cancer cohort cells conclusively show a highly increased rate within these cancer cohort cells suggesting a more aggressive population of cancer cells. Furthermore, data obtained through extracellular matrix experiments suggest this scaffold plays a key role in cancer cohort formation by influencing the change in cell adhesion protein expression levels and location