Varying Opinions on the Authenticity of a Human Midgut Carcinoid Cell Line – Letter Available to Purchase

In 2007, our laboratory published an article in Clinical Cancer Research reporting on the development of a human midgut carcinoid tumor cell line (1). This cell line has now been shared with over 20 laboratories around the world. Investigators in the field of neuroendocrine tumor research are aware that there are very few human carcinoid cell lines available for use in vitro and for murine studies. At the time of publication of this article, we believed that we had developed the first human midgut carcinoid cell line in North America. These cells expressed dense neurosecretory granules on electron microscopy, VMAT-1/2, and somatostatin receptors (1). Recently, we performed short tandem repeat genotyping of the CNDT cell line, and we were unable to match this cell line to any other cell line in our own database at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, The John Hopkins database, or the American...