Autocrine HBEGF expression promotes breast cancer intravasation, metastasis and macrophage-independent invasion in vivo.

ABSTRACT: Increased expression of HBEGF in estrogen receptor-negative breast tumors is correlated with enhanced metastasis to distant organ sites and more rapid disease recurrence upon removal of the primary tumor. Our previous work has demonstrated a paracrine loop between breast cancer cells and macrophages in which the tumor cells are capable of stimulating macrophages through the secretion of colony-stimulating factor-1 while the tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), in turn, aid in tumor cell invasion by secreting epidermal growth factor. To determine how the autocrine expression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) ligands by carcinoma cells would affect this paracrine loop mechanism, and in particular whether tumor cell invasion depends on spatial ligand gradients generated by TAMs, we g

SUBMITTER: Zhou ZN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3950352 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature