In vivo tumor delivery of the green fluorescent protein gene to report future occurrence of metastasis.

The green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene was administered to intraperitoneally (i.p.) growing human stomach cancer in nude mice to visualize future regional and distant metastases. GFP retroviral supernatants were injected i.p. from day 4 to day 10 after i.p. implantation of the cancer cells. Tumor and metastasis fluorescence was visualized every other week with the use of fluorescence optics via a laparotomy on the tumor-bearing animals. At 2 weeks after retroviral GFP delivery, GFP-expressing tumor cells were observed in gonadal fat, greater omentum, and intestine, indicating that these primary i.p. growing tumors were efficiently transduced by the GFP gene and could be visualized by its expression. At the second and third laparotomies, GFP-expressing tumor cells were observed to have spread to lymph nodes in the mesentery and other regional sites. At the fourth laparotomy, widespread tumor growth was visualized by GFP expression, inducing liver metastasis. No normal tissues were found to be transduced by the GFP retrovirus. Thus, reporter gene transduction of the primary tumor enabled detection of its subsequent metastasis. This gene therapy model could be applied to primary tumors before resection or other treatment to have a fluorescent early detection system for metastasis and recurrence.