Metastatic Microenvironments Alter Breast Cancer Aggressiveness and Response to Therapeutics

摘要

Metastases account for nearly all deaths associated with advanced breast cancer and diagnosis of metastases results in less than a 3% survival rate over 20 years. There are five molecularly distinct subtypes of breast cancer, and it is unknown if primary tumors and metastases are genetically identical or if they differ in the expression of genes that facilitate cancer spread and survival. The purpose of this project is to identify approaches to prevent the spread of cancer cells and to inhibit the growth of cancer cells growing as metastases by utilizing overlapping in vitro, in vivo, and in silico models. Herein we identify that gene expression profiles of cancer cells and endothelial cells are largely maintained, regardless of the environment they are in. We also identify that the different breast cancer subtypes are predisposed to metastasize to different vital organs.