Analysis of heterogenous metastatic ability in the subclones of the malignant intestinal cancer population

It has not yet been examined a possible of de-evolution in malignant characteristics of cancer cells. We found frequent loss of metastatic ability of mouse intestinal cancer cells (AKTP cells) that carry driver mutations in Apc, Kras, Tgfbr2, and Trp53. The non-metastatic subclones lost metastatic ability without showing alteration in driver mutation-activated oncogenic pathways. These results indicate that subpopulation of malignant cancer cells frequently lost their metastatic ability, which may go extinct because of decreased proliferation.