Current and future applications of ecis models to study bone metastasis

Abstract

Bone metastasis is the most common type of metastasis from the three leading cancers, i.e. prostate, breast and lung cancer. Over the last few decades, intensive studies have been carried out to understand and treat the bone metastasis. To date, the understanding of how certain cancers preferentially metastasise to the bone remains poor, and there is no effective approach to either prevent or treat bone metastases. Electric cell-substrate impedance sensing (ECIS), provides a new and automated experimental method with high throughput to investigate bone metastasis. This chapter is aimed to summarise current experimental models using ECIS to study bone metastasis. These ECIS models include methods to investigate mechanisms of how cancer cells interact with bone cells and tissue to establish bone metastasis; to examine the effect on cancer cells by certain growth factors enriched in bone or by bone extract, and to test certain novel drugs or compounds which may potentially prevent or treat bone metastasis. © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2012.