Long-term primary culture of a clear cell ovarian carcinoma reveals an epithelial–mesenchymal cooperative interaction

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Background

Cell lines that can be propagated indefinitely in culture are a helpful resource with which to study biological processes in cancer biology and experimental therapy. A large number of human cancer cell lines has been generated in the past few decades, and vast scientific information has been gathered from experimental exploitation of these cell lines; however, expanding literature suggests that predictions made based on the behavior of cancer cell lines in vitro, or xenografted into immunosuppressed mice, do not always materialize in clinical applications. In the case of ovarian cancer, this occurrence is highly remarkable. Over 100 human epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) cell lines have been characterized [1]–[3] in the past few decades, facilitating the discovery of many pathobiological mechanisms and allowing preclinical testing of novel anti-cancer drugs. Nevertheless, the standard of care for this disease has not changed since the introduction of the platinum/taxane drug combination in the mid-1990s [4]. This leads us to reflect that the experimental models we are using to study cancer in general and ovarian cancer in particular, while useful, are not entirely comprehensive....