Expression data from human Circulating Tumor Cells (CTC) and HT-29 cells

Unraveling the yet unknown molecular mechanisms regulating the biology of metastasis-competent Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) is important for better understanding metastatic growth and disease relapses in patients with colon cancer. We investigated and compared the transcriptome profiles of the CTC line and of a cell line derived from a primary colon cancer to get some insight into the specific molecular mechanism of metastasis-competent CTCs. We used microarrays to establish the molecular portrait of the metastasis-competent CTC and of HT-29 cells CTC line was isolated from the blood of a patient with colon cancer and the HT-29 line was derived from a primary colon cancer. Affymetrix Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 DNA chips were performed to analyze the transcriptomes of CTC and HT29. The Affymetrix 3’ IVT express protocol was used to prepare cRNA (one-cycle amplification). The gene expression data were extracted using Affymetrix Expression Console software.