Distal cholangiocarcinoma (dCCA) is a malignant tumor characterized by a challenging diagnosis, high invasiveness, and extremely poor prognosis. Research on dCCA is limited by the scarcity of reliable patient-derived preclinical tumor models. This study established a novel human distal cholangiocarcinoma cell line, CBC3T-3, and systematically characterized its biological properties, genomic features, and potential for clinical application. This cell line was extracted from postoperative distal cholangiocarcinoma tumor from a 54-year-old male patient. It was stably passaged (> 50 generations) through primary culture and condition optimization, preserving the same pathology as that of the primary tumor. Whole-exome sequencing (WES) confirmed somatic mutations, tumor mutation burden, single-sample clonal structure, driver genes, and drug resistance genes in CBC3T-3 cells, revealing their genomic characteristics. Functional assays demonstrated that CBC3T-3 cells exhibit strong capabilities for proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro. In a subcutaneous xenograft model in immunodeficient mice, palpable tumor nodules developed within 4 weeks, reflecting the clinical characteristics of rapidly progressive disease. Drug sensitivity analysis revealed that, compared with TFK-1 cells, CBC3T-3 cells presented significantly greater responses to paclitaxel, gemcitabine, and oxaliplatin but relatively poor responses to 5-FU and cisplatin. The integration of drug resistance gene findings from WES suggests that TP53 missense mutations may mediate primary resistance to cisplatin. The establishment of the CBC3T-3 cell line enhances the research toolkit for dCCA. Its genomic characteristics and functional plasticity provide a reliable preclinical tumor model for developing precision therapies and investigating drug resistance mechanisms.
xi et al. (Tue,) studied this question.