CENU treatment induced bystander effects which are effective on parental and non-parental tumors and have a phospholipid metabolism proton NMR spectroscopy signature.

We recently showed, using a parental double B16 melanoma tumor model that, in the presence of CENU-treated primary tumors, untreated secondary tumors exhibited growth inhibition. This response was shown to be related to CENU-induced bystander effects. To see whether CENU-induced bystander effects were still effective on non-parental syngeneic secondary tumors, Lewis lung (3LL) secondary tumors were inoculated in recipients bearing CENU-treated B16 melanoma tumors. Our results show that non-parental secondary 3LL tumors underwent growth inhibition, differentiation, and phospholipid metabolism alterations, all changes similar to those of parental secondary 3LL tumors. This demonstrates the lack of tumor tissue specificity of chemotherapy-induced bystander effects.