The impact of chemotherapy on floating vs. attached colorectal cancer cells: An

Background: Peritoneal metastasis (PM) is a highly aggressive, hard-to-treat malignant disease which has continuously increased in incidence and clinical urgency. The progression of peritoneal metastasis (PM) is primarily driven by the spread of intraperitoneal cancer cells through initial surface adhesion, followed by growth and local invasion. Therefore, prevention of this initial adhesion may help to inhibit metastatic formation. By using a novel Methods: HT-29 colorectal cancer cells were exposed to oxaliplatin (OX) and doxorubicin Results: OX exposure to floating cancer cells significantly reduced cell adhesion and viability compared to OX exposure to attached cells (p < 0.05). Flow cytometry revealed that this effect was not due to increased chemotherapy uptake in floating cells. In the Conclusions: Chemotherapy administered to cancer cells prior to full surface adhesion strongly impairs cancer cell adhesion, growth, and expansion. This phenomenon may partly explain the favorable clinical outcomes observed with (neo)adjuvant chemotherapy before and after complete cancer resection in PM and other cancer types. Floating cells seem to be more sensitive to chemotherapeutic agents than attached cells. Delaying and targeting specifically the ability of cancer cells to attach could help enormously in the treatment of many cancer manifestations such as PM. Further research is needed to confirm these findings in other cancer entities and to explore their potential clinical applications.