Etoposide-Bevacizumab a new strategy against human melanoma cells expressing stem-like traits

Tumors contain a sub-population of self-renewing and expanding cells known as cancer stem cells (CSCs). Putative CSCs were isolated from human melanoma cells of a different aggressiveness, Hs294T and A375 cell lines, grown under hypoxia using “sphere-forming assay”, CD133 surface expression and migration ability. We found that a cell sub-population enriched for P1 sphere-initiating ability and CD133 expression also express larger amount of VEGF-R2. Etoposide does not influence phenotype of this sub-population of melanoma cells, while a combined treatment with Etoposide and Bevacizumab significantly abolished P1 sphere-forming ability, an effect associated with apoptosis of this subset of cells. Hypoxic melanoma cells sorted for VEGF-R2/CD133 positivity also undergo apoptosis when exposed to Etoposide and Bevacizumab. When Etoposide and Bevacizumab-treated hypoxic cells were injected intravenously into immunodeficient mice revealed a reduced capacity to induce lung colonies, which also appear with a longer latency period. Hence, our study indicates that a combined exposure to Etoposide and Bevacizumab targets melanoma cells endowed with stem-like properties and might be considered a novel approach to treat cancer-initiating cells.