Caspase-independent cell death does not elicit a proliferative response in melanoma cancer cells.

Background: Apoptosis, the most well-known type of programmed cell death, can induce in a paracrine manner a proliferative response in neighboring surviving cells called apoptosis-induced proliferation (AiP). While having obvious benefits when triggered in developmental processes, AiP is a serious obstacle in cancer therapy, where apoptosis is frequently induced by chemotherapy. Therefore, in this study, we evaluated the capacity of an alternative type of cell death, called caspase-independent cell death, to promote proliferation.

Results: Using a novel in vitro isogenic cellular model to trigger either apoptosis or caspase-independent cell death, we found that the later has no obvious compensatory proliferation effects on neighboring cells.

Conclusions: This study enforces the idea that alternative types of cell death such as caspase-independent cell death could be considered to replace apoptosis in the context of cancer treatment.