Breast carcinomatous tumoral emboli can result from encircling lymphovasculogenesis rather than lymphovascular invasion

Lymphovascular Invasion as a Prognostic Factor in Non-Metastatic Adenocarcinoma of Esophagogastric Junction After Radical Surgery

Purpose

Tumors with lymphovascular invasion (LVI) are thought to be associated with lymph node metastasis and to lead to a worse prognosis. However, the effect of LVI on the prognosis of adenocarcinoma of esophagogastric junction (AEG) is still unclear.

Patients and Methods

We retrospectively analyzed 224 consecutive patients with non-metastatic AEG who underwent radical surgery in our hospital from 2004 to 2018. Inverse probability weighting (IPW) analysis was used to eliminate the selection bias. IPW-adjusted Kaplan–Meier curves and Cox proportional hazards models were used to compare disease-specific survival (DSS) and overall survival (OS) between patients with and without LVI.

Results

A total of 224 patients with non-metastatic AEG who underwent radical resection were included in the study and 96 (42.9%) patients developed LVI. Survival analysis showed that LVI were associated with worse DSS (hazard ratio (HR) = 3.12; 95% CI: 1.93–5.03) and worse OS (HR = 2.33; 95% CI: 1.61–3.38). The results were consistent across subgroups stratified by pathologic N stage. Subgroup analysis demonstrated that Siewert type III (HR= 3.20, 95% CI: 1.45–7.06) was associated with worse DSS, but not Siewert type I/II (HR= 1.46, 95% CI: 0.94–2.31, P-interaction=0.047).

Conclusion

LVI are associated with worse prognosis in AEG. LVI had a worse effect on DSS in Siewert type III AEG than Siewert type I/II AEG.

In vitro vascularized tumor platform for modeling tumor-vasculature interactions of inflammatory breast cancer

Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC), a rare form of breast cancer associated with increased angiogenesis and metastasis, is largely driven by tumor-stromal interactions with the vasculature and the extracellular matrix (ECM). However, there is currently a lack of understanding of the role these interactions play in initiation and progression of the disease. In this study, we developed the first three-dimensional, in vitro, vascularized, microfluidic IBC platform to quantify the spatial and temporal dynamics of tumor-vasculature and tumor-ECM interactions specific to IBC. Platforms consisting of collagen type 1 ECM with an endothelialized blood vessel were cultured with IBC cells, MDA-IBC3 (HER2+) or SUM149 (triple negative), and for comparison to non-IBC cells, MDA-MB-231 (triple negative). Acellular collagen platforms with endothelialized blood vessels served as controls. SUM149 and MDA-MB-231 platforms exhibited a significantly (p < .05) higher vessel permeability and decreased endothelial coverage of the vessel lumen compared to the control. Both IBC platforms, MDA-IBC3 and SUM149, expressed higher levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (p < .05) and increased collagen ECM porosity compared to non-IBCMDA-MB-231 (p < .05) and control (p < .01) platforms. Additionally, unique to the MDA-IBC3 platform, we observed progressive sprouting of the endothelium over time resulting in viable vessels with lumen. The newly sprouted vessels encircled clusters of MDA-IBC3 cells replicating a key feature of in vivo IBC. The IBC in vitro vascularized platforms introduced in this study model well-described in vivo and clinical IBC phenotypes and provide an adaptable, high throughput tool for systematically and quantitatively investigating tumor-stromal mechanisms and dynamics of tumor progression.

Tetraploidization of Immortalized Myoblasts Induced by Cell Fusion Drives Myogenic Sarcoma Development with DMD Deletion

Whole-genome doubling is the second most frequent genomic event, after TP53 alterations, in advanced solid tumors and is associated with poor prognosis. Tetraploidization step will lead to aneuploidy and chromosomic rearrangements. The mechanism leading to tetraploid cells is important since endoreplication, abortive cytokinesis and cell fusion could have distinct consequences. Unlike processes based on duplication, cell fusion involves the merging of two different genomes, epigenomes and cellular states. Since it is involved in muscle differentiation, we hypothesized that it could play a role in the oncogenesis of myogenic cancers. Spontaneous hybrids, but not their non-fused immortalized myoblast counterparts they are generated from, induced tumors in mice. Unstable upon fusion, the hybrid genome evolved from initial mitosis to tumors with a highly rearranged genome. This genome remodeling finally produced targeted DMD deletions associated with replicative stress, isoform relocalization and metastatic spreading, exactly as observed in human myogenic sarcomas. In conclusion, these results draw a model of myogenic oncogenesis in which cell fusion and oncogene activation combine to produce pleomorphic aggressive sarcomas.

Predictors of lymphovascular invasion identified from pathological factors in Chinese patients with breast cancer

This study aimed to evaluate correlations between lymphovascular invasion (LVI) and the expression of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER-2), Ki-67, CK5/6, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), E-cadherin, BCL11A and P53 in invasive breast cancer and to identify predictors of LVI based on these pathological factors. In all, 392 paraffin-embedded tissues from consecutive patients with primary operable invasive breast cancer were included. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was retrospectively performed using a tissue microarray (TMA) of the paraffin-embedded tissues. LVI-positive rates were compared using the χ² test. Correlations between pathological factors were assessed using Spearman's test. Binary logistic regression was employed in multivariate analyses of statistically significant factors. The results showed that LVI positivity was significantly higher in patients with HER-2-positive expression or high Ki-67 expression. HER-2 expression was weakly positively correlated with Ki-67 expression. HER-2-positive expression and high Ki-67 expression were found to be risk factors for LVI, and associations between LVI and other pathological factors were not significant. Therefore, HER-2-positive expression and high Ki-67 expression are predictors of LVI, whereas the expression of ER, PR, CK5/6, EGFR, VEGF, E-cadherin, BCL11A and P53 is not associated with LVI in invasive breast cancer.

Inflammatory breast cancer: New factors contribute to disease etiology: A review

Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is a highly metastatic and fatal form of breast cancer. In fact, IBC is characterized by specific morphological, phenotypic, and biological properties that distinguish it from non-IBC. The aggressive behavior of IBC being more common among young women and the low survival rate alarmed researchers to explore the disease biology. Despite the basic and translational studies needed to understand IBC disease biology and identify specific biomarkers, studies are limited by few available IBC cell lines, experimental models, and paucity of patient samples. Above all, in the last decade, researchers were able to identify new factors that may play a crucial role in IBC progression. Among identified factors are cytokines, chemokines, growth factors, and proteases. In addition, viral infection was also suggested to participate in the etiology of IBC disease. In this review, we present novel factors suggested by different studies to contribute to the etiology of IBC and the proposed new therapeutic insights.

The membrane-cytoskeletal protein 4.1N is involved in the process of cell adhesion, migration and invasion of breast cancer cells

Protein 4.1N belongs to the protein 4.1 superfamily that links transmembrane proteins to the actin cytoskeleton. Recent evidence has shown that protein 4.1 is important in tumor suppression. However, the functions of 4.1N in the metastasis of breast cancer are largely unknown. In the present study, MCF-7, T-47D and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell lines with various metastatic abilities were employed. Protein 4.1N was found to be expressed in poorly metastatic MCF-7 and middle metastatic T-47D cell lines, and was predominantly associated with cell-cell junctions. However, no 4.1N expression was detected in the highly metastatic MDA-MB-231 cells. Moreover, re-expression of 4.1N in MDA-MB-231 cells inhibited cell adhesion, migration and invasion. The results suggest that protein 4.1N is a negative regulator of cell metastasis in breast cancer.

Tumor-selective, adenoviral-mediated GFP genetic labeling of human cancer in the live mouse reports future recurrence after resection

We have previously developed a telomerase-specific replicating adenovirus expressing GFP (OBP-401), which can selectively label tumors in vivo with GFP. Intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of OBP-401 specifically labeled peritoneal tumors with GFP, enabling fluorescence visualization of the disseminated disease and real-time fluorescence surgical navigation. However, the technical problems with removing all cancer cells still remain, even with fluorescence-guided surgery. In this study, we report imaging of tumor recurrence after fluorescence-guided surgery of tumors labeled in vivo with the telomerase-dependent, GFP-containing adenovirus OBP-401.. Recurrent tumor nodules brightly expressed GFP, indicating that initial OBP-401-GFP labeling of peritoneal disease was genetically stable, such that proliferating residual cancer cells still express GFP. In situ tumor labeling with a genetic reporter has important advantages over antibody and other non-genetic labeling of tumors, since residual disease remains labeled during recurrence and can be further resected under fluorescence guidance.