Abstract
Background: Metastasis in breast cancer foreshadows mortality, as clinically evident disease is aggressive and generally chemoresistant. Disseminated breast cancer cells often enter a period of dormancy for years to decades before they emerge as detectable cancers. Harboring of these dormant cells is not individually predictable, and available information suggests that these micrometastatic foci cannot be effectively targeted by existing therapies. As such, long-term, relatively non-toxic interventions that prevent metastatic outgrowth would be an advance in treatment. Epidemiological studies have found that statins reduce breast cancer specific mortality but not the incidence of primary cancer. However, the means by which statins reduce mortality without affecting primary tumor development remains unclear. Methods: We examine statin efficacy against two breast cancer cell lines in models of breast cancer metastasis: a 2D in vitro co-culture model of breast cancer cell interaction with the liver, a 3D ex vivo microphysiological system model of breast cancer metastasis, and two independent mouse models of spontaneous breast cancer metastasis to the lung and liver, respectively. Results: We demonstrate that statins can directly affect the proliferation of breast cancer cells, specifically at the metastatic site. In a 2D co-culture model of breast cancer cell interaction with the liver, we demonstrate that atorvastatin can directly suppress proliferation of mesenchymal but not epithelial breast cancer cells. Further, in an ex vivo 3D liver microphysiological system of breast cancer metastasis, we found that atorvastatin can block stimulated emergence of dormant breast cancer cells. In two independent models of spontaneous breast cancer metastasis to the liver and to the lung, we find that statins significantly reduce proliferation of the metastatic but not primary tumor cells. Conclusions: As statins can block metastatic tumor outgrowth, they should be considered for use as long-term adjuvant drugs to delay clinical emergence and decrease mortality in breast cancer patients.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1094-1105 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | British Journal of Cancer |
| Volume | 119 |
| Issue number | 9 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 30 2018 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Funding: This work was supported by a VA Merit Award (AW) and NIH grants (TR000496 – AW, and CA199947 – CHB).
Funding Information:
used for cell counting and quantification. Use of these two scopes was generously provided by the Center for Biological Imaging at the University of Pittsburgh, supported by NIH grant 1S10OD019973-01. Mouse tissue images (Figs. 5, 6, S3, and S5) were taken using an Olympus BX40 upright microscope with a ×10 and ×40 objective using either brightfield (H&E, TUNEL, and Ki-67 IHC images) or fluorescence excitation wavelengths of 405 nm (DAPI) and 488 nm (Click-iT EdU).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, Cancer Research UK.
