The role of stem cell factor and anti-stem cell factor in chemotherapy

摘要

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) is being increasingly used to treat breast cancer patients particularly those with large tumours or locally advanced disease. One important factor causing mortality in women with breast cancer is multidrug resistance (MDR) which causes treatment failure. Several unfavourable covariates of chemoresistance have been characterised in breast cancer cells, including unfavourable karyotype, high Bcl-2 expression, c-kit (receptor for stem cell factor) and high glycoprotein expression (P-glycoprotein-PgP, Multidrug Resistant Protein 1-MRP1, Lung Resistant Protein-LRP, and Breast Cancer Resistant Protein-BCRP), this last phenotype shows a broad spectrum of resistance to structurally and functionally unrelated cancer drugs in vitro and in vivo. Testing the new and more specific molecular targeted therapeutic approaches in breast cancer cells can provide the basis for a more effective combined molecular/chemotherapy regimen and may consequently improve the treatment outcome in patients with breast cancer. Both Stem Cell Factor (SCF) and Annexin V are surrogate markers for chemoresistance. However, there is little information on whether the antibody to SCF (anti-SCF) enhances cytotoxicity in breast cancer cells. In this study the effects of both anti-SCF and low dose chemotherapy (Adriamycin and Paclitaxel), on Bcl-2 and Annexin V expression, in MCF-7 sensitive and MCF-7 resistant breast cancer cells were evaluated.