Colon cancer shperes are sensitive to Fenretinide. Homo sapiens

Fenretinide has shown its antitumor activity in many tumor types with low cytotoxicity to normal cells. Recently, we have shown that fenretinide could eradicate chronic myeloid leukemia stem/progenitor cells and spheres from ovarian cancer. In this study, we investigate whether fenretinide could selectively target sphere cells of colon cancer. Using high-throughtput microarray system, we identified GO terms and pathway signatures enriched in fenretinide treated HT29 cells and HT29 derived sphere cells. Overall design: Colon cancer cells HT29 were cultured in sphere formation conditions, HT29 cells and HT29 derived sphere cells were treated with fenretinide, and total RNA from those spheres and corresponding adhered cell was hybridized on Affymetrix U133 plus 2.0 genechip.