Cancer cell lines as genetic models of their parent histology: analyses based on array comparative genomic hybridization

Tumor-derived cell lines are used as in vitro cancer models, but their ability to accurately reflect the phenotype and genotype of the parental histology remains questionable, given the prevalence of documented cell line–specific cytogenetic changes. We have addressed the issue of whether copy number alterations seen in tumor-derived cell lines reflect those observed in studies of fresh tissue by carrying out a meta-analysis of array-based comparative genomic hybridization data that considers both copy number alteration frequencies and the occurrence of cancer gene amplifications and homozygous deletions. Keywords: comparative genomic hybridization The objective of this study was to determine if frequency patterns of observed DNA copy number alterations in panels of cell lines mirrored that in their parent histology. To accomplish this, panels of both tumors and cell lines of several common cancers were profiled by array CGH. These included breast cancers (n = 69), ovarian cancers (n = 103), sarcomas (n = 81) and melanomas (n = 62). These data were merged with publicly available data for lung, panreatic and colon cancers.