Molecular Interplay between Dormant Bone Marrow-Resident Cells (BMRCs) and CTCs in Breast Cancer.

ABSTRACT: Despite widespread knowledge that bone marrow-resident breast cancer cells (BMRCs) affect tumor progression, signaling mechanisms of BMRCs implicated in maintaining long-term dormancy have not been characterized. To overcome these hurdles, we developed a new experimental model of clinical dormancy employing patient-isolated Circulating Tumor Cells (de novo CTCs) and their injection in xenografts with subsequent tumor monitoring and CTC characterization (ex vivo CTCs). We hypothesized that significant distinctions exist between signaling pathways of bone marrow-homing vs metastasis-competent CTCs upon transplantation in xenografts. Comparative transcriptomic analyses of ex vivo vs de novo CTCs identified increased mTOR signaling-a critical pathway frequently dysregulated in breast cancer an

SUBMITTER: Boral D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7352937 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature