Heritable Colonic Cancer Syndromes: Induction of Anchorage-Independence in Dermal Cultures Derived from Patients with Adenomatosis of the Colon and Rectum

After exposure to the mutagen, ethylmethanesulfonate (EMS), or the carcinogen, urethane (UR), anchorage independence was observed in cultures derived from normal skin biopsies from patients with the heritable cancer syndrome, adenomatosis of the colon and rectum (ACR). Such colonies from methylcellulose suspension cultures did not produce tumors in athymic mice. Dissociation of growth in suspension from tumorigenicity was considered to be consistent with the hypothesis that a series of somatic mutation-like events occur in carcinogenesis. Such ACR cells should prove to be useful in studies on the genetic predisposition to cancer.