Detection of a cell-surface antigen correlated with organ-specific metastasis.

Despite the fact that tumour cells with the potential for metastasis may circulate randomly, many demonstrate a preference for specific organs. Recently, several investigators have selected variant tumour cell lines with enhanced capacity to metastasize to specific organs, mainly using the spontaneously originating B16 melanoma cell line of the mouse and tumour variants with enhanced capacity to metastasize to the lungs, brain and liver. We previously reported the derivation of a liver-specific metastatic variant of a Marek's disease (MD) virus-transformed, non-producer lymphoma cell line. MD is a naturally occurring, herpes virus-induced, T-cell lymphoma of chickens which bears pathological and aetiological similarities to Burkitt's lymphoma in man. This makes MD a useful model for study. One similarity is the pattern of metastasis in which both lymphomas induce a high incidence of ovarian and liver lesions. We now report the existence of a cell-surface antigen, detectable by a monoclonal antibody, correlated with organ-specific metastasis.