Evaluation of Altered Stromal/Epithelial Tissue Arrangement of the c- Kit Messaging System in the Control of Breast Cancer

摘要

The purpose of this research is to evaluate stromal influence on breast cancer growth particularly the role of c-Kit expression in the stroma on the growth and migration of breast cancer cells. The model is based on obtaining breast cancer cells and stromal cells from the same patient, growing these cells in an organotypic environment in culture and in immune deficient mice, and studying the influence of c-Kit modulation on tumor behavior. The fibroblasts surrounding a breast cancer influence the morphology, migration, and proliferation of the breast cancer. The breast cancer becomes more rounded, less connected to its neighboring cells, more proliferative and more invasive in the presence of fibroblasts. The fibroblasts and breast cancer under study both express c-Kit, the fibroblasts more so than the breast cancer. Strategies which inhibit c-Kit as well as strategies which overexpress c-Kit in the fibroblasts are being studied to determine their effect on the growth and migration of the breast cancer cells.