Project description:Disruptions of systemic homeostasis have emerged as critical regulators of cancer. Recent studies indicate that chronic or acute host stressors (e.g., obesity1, surgery2) alter cancer pathogenesis. Many cancer patients, particularly those with breast cancer, are at increased risk for cardiovascular disease due to treatment toxicity and resulting changes in lifestyle behaviors3-5. While elevated risk and incidence of cardiovascular events in breast cancer is well-established, whether such events impact cancer pathogenesis is not known. Herein, we show that an incident myocardial infarction (MI or heart attack) accelerates breast cancer outgrowth and cancer-specific mortality in mice and humans. In mouse models of breast cancer, MI epigenetically reprogrammed Ly6Chigh monocytes in the bone marrow reservoir to an immunosuppressive phenotype that was maintained at the transcriptional level in monocytes in the circulation and tumor. In parallel, MI increased circulating Ly6Chigh monocyte levels and recruitment to tumors, and depletion of these cells abrogated MI-induced tumor growth. Furthermore, evaluation of the relationship between a new onset post-diagnosis cardiovascular event and cancer outcomes in early-stage breast cancer patients revealed increased risk of recurrence and cancer-specific death, highlighting the clinical relevance of our findings. Collectively, our results demonstrate that MI induces alterations to systemic homeostasis, triggering cross-disease communication that accelerates breast cancer.
Project description:Disruptions of systemic homeostasis have emerged as critical regulators of cancer. Recent studies indicate that chronic or acute host stressors (e.g., obesity1, surgery2) alter cancer pathogenesis. Many cancer patients, particularly those with breast cancer, are at increased risk for cardiovascular disease due to treatment toxicity and resulting changes in lifestyle behaviors3-5. While elevated risk and incidence of cardiovascular events in breast cancer is well-established, whether such events impact cancer pathogenesis is not known. Herein, we show that an incident myocardial infarction (MI or heart attack) accelerates breast cancer outgrowth and cancer-specific mortality in mice and humans. In mouse models of breast cancer, MI epigenetically reprogrammed Ly6Chigh monocytes in the bone marrow reservoir to an immunosuppressive phenotype that was maintained at the transcriptional level in monocytes in the circulation and tumor. In parallel, MI increased circulating Ly6Chigh monocyte levels and recruitment to tumors, and depletion of these cells abrogated MI-induced tumor growth. Furthermore, evaluation of the relationship between a new onset post-diagnosis cardiovascular event and cancer outcomes in early-stage breast cancer patients revealed increased risk of recurrence and cancer-specific death, highlighting the clinical relevance of our findings. Collectively, our results demonstrate that MI induces alterations to systemic homeostasis, triggering cross-disease communication Disruptions of systemic homeostasis have emerged as critical regulators of cancer. Recent studies indicate that chronic or acute host stressors (e.g., obesity1, surgery2) alter cancer pathogenesis. Many cancer patients, particularly those with breast cancer, are at increased risk for cardiovascular disease due to treatment toxicity and resulting changes in lifestyle behaviors3-5. While elevated risk and incidence of cardiovascular events in breast cancer is well-established, whether such events impact cancer pathogenesis is not known. Herein, we show that an incident myocardial infarction (MI or heart attack) accelerates breast cancer outgrowth and cancer-specific mortality in mice and humans. In mouse models of breast cancer, MI epigenetically reprogrammed Ly6Chigh monocytes in the bone marrow reservoir to an immunosuppressive phenotype that was maintained at the transcriptional level in monocytes in the circulation and tumor. In parallel, MI increased circulating Ly6Chigh monocyte levels and recruitment to tumors, and depletion of these cells abrogated MI-induced tumor growth. Furthermore, evaluation of the relationship between a new onset post-diagnosis cardiovascular event and cancer outcomes in early-stage breast cancer patients revealed increased risk of recurrence and cancer-specific death, highlighting the clinical relevance of our findings. Collectively, our results demonstrate that MI induces alterations to systemic homeostasis, triggering cross-disease communication that accelerates breast cancer.
Project description:Breast cancer patients have increased risk of myocardial infarction (MI), but whether these events impact cancer pathogenesis is not known. In mouse models of breast cancer, MI increased circulating Ly6Chigh monocytes and their recruitment to tumors, accelerating cancer progression and metastasis. Analysis of the bone marrow reservoir revealed that MI epigenetically reprogrammed Ly6Chigh monocytes to an immunosuppressive phenotype that was maintained in monocytes in the circulation and tumor at the transcriptional level. Depletion of Ly6Chigh monocytes abrogated MI-induced cancer progression and increased activated cytotoxic T cells in the tumor. In early-stage breast cancer patients, post-diagnosis incident cardiovascular events, such as MI, increased the risk of recurrence and cancer-specific mortality, highlighting the clinical relevance of our findings. Collectively, our results indicate that MI induces cross-disease communication that accelerates breast cancer progression.
Project description:Affymetrix microarray analysis of molecular changes after myocardial infarction. Samples of heart tissue were analyzed after myocardial infarction from WT and reg3beta knock-out mice. Samples from scar tissue and samples adjacent to the scar were analyzed. In the experiment we primarily compared infarction zone of wild-type to infarction zone of knock-out animals, and remote zone of wild-type to remote zone of knock-outs.