An improved in vitro model to characterize invasive growing cancer cells simultaneously by function and genetic aberrations

Prostate cancer cells have the capability to invasively grow through the barrier of a Matrigel™ and could easily be sampled in a pad of Matrigel™. Comparative genomic hybridization revealed characteristic chromosomal aberrations of the invasive growing cells. Noteworthy is their ability to spheroid formation, which allows for further cell propagation by standard cell culture methods. Thus, our improved invasion model is a tool for the sampling of invasive growing cancer cells from fresh human tumour material allowing for functional as well as genetic studies.