Human osteogenic cells secrete biological activities that stimulate cancer
cells to migrate to and/or invade tissues. Conditioned medium (CM)
produced by human pre-osteoblasts and osteoblasts induced migration and
tissue invasion of human prostate cancer cells. Thus, conditioned media
and/or proteins isolated therefrom may be used to identify
metastasis-inducing factors. Also described are methods of identifying an
inhibitor of such factors.