Comparison of in vitro and in vivo approaches to studying brain colonization by breast cancer cells.

ABSTRACT: Brain metastases occur in 20 to 40% of patients with metastatic breast cancer. The process is complex and depends on successful cancer cell evasion from the primary tumor, distribution and survival within the blood stream and cerebral microvasculature, penetration of the blood brain barrier and proliferation within the brain microenvironment. The initial steps of brain colonization are difficult to study in vivo. Therefore, in vitro assays have been developed to mimic this process. Most commonly, in vitro studies of brain colonization focus on tumor cell adhesion to brain endothelial cells and transendothelial migration. We previously investigated breast cancer brain colonization from the blood stream in vivo and defined the time and process of brain entry for five different cancer cell li

SUBMITTER: Lorger M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4836850 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature