Correlation between targeted RNAseq signature of breast cancer CTCs and onset of bone-only metastases.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Background
Bone is the most frequent site of metastases from breast cancer (BC), but no biomarkers are yet available to predict skeletal dissemination.Methods
We attempted to identify a gene signature correlated with bone metastasis (BM) onset in circulating tumour cells (CTCs), isolated by a DEPArray-based protocol from 40 metastatic BC patients and grouped according to metastasis sites, namely "BM" (bone-only), "ES" (extra-skeletal) or BM + ES (bone + extra-skeletal).Results
A 134-gene panel was first validated through targeted RNA sequencing (RNAseq) on sub-clones of the MDA-MB-231 BC cell line with variable organotropism, which successfully shaped their clustering. The panel was then applied to CTC groups and, in particular, the "BM" vs "ES" CTC comparison revealed 31 differentially expressed genes, including MAF, CAPG, GIPC1 and IL1B, playing key prognostic roles in BC.Conclusion
Such evidence confirms that CTCs are suitable biological sources for organotropism investigation through targeted RNAseq and might deserve future applications in wide-scale prospective studies.
SUBMITTER: Lovero D
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8810805 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Similar Datasets
Project description:Molecular drivers underlying bone metastases in human cancer are not well understood, in part due to constraints in bone tissue sampling. Here, RNA sequencing was performed of circulating tumor cells (CTC) isolated from blood samples of women with metastatic estrogen receptor (ER)+ breast cancer, comparing cases with progression in bone versus visceral organs. Among the activated cellular pathways in CTCs from bone-predominant breast cancer is androgen receptor (AR) signaling. AR gene expression is evident, as is its constitutively active splice variant AR-v7. AR expression within CTCs is correlated with the duration of treatment with aromatase inhibitors, suggesting that it contributes to acquired resistance to endocrine therapy. In an established breast cancer xenograft model, a bone-tropic derivative displays increased AR expression, whose genetic or pharmacologic suppression reduces metastases to bone but not to lungs. Together, these observations identify AR signaling in CTCs from women with bone-predominant ER+ breast cancer, and provide a rationale for testing androgen inhibitors in this subset of patients.Implications: This study highlights a role for the AR in breast cancer bone metastasis, and suggests that therapeutic targeting of the AR may benefit patients with metastatic breast cancer. Mol Cancer Res; 16(4); 720-7. ©2018 AACR.
| S-EPMC5882540 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Molecular drivers underlying bone metastases in human cancer are not well understood, in part due to constraints in bone tissue sampling. Here, we undertook RNA sequencing of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) obtained from blood samples of women with metastatic estrogen receptor (ER)+ breast cancer, comparing cases with progression in bone versus visceral organs. Among the activated cellular pathways in CTCs from bone-predominant breast cancer is Androgen Receptor (AR) signaling. AR gene expression is evident, as is its constitutively active splicing variant AR-v7. AR expression within CTCs is correlated with the duration of treatment with aromatase inhibitors, suggesting that it may contribute to acquired resistance to anti-estrogen therapy. In an established breast cancer xenograft model, a bone-tropic derivative displays increased AR expression, whose genetic or pharmacologic suppression reduces metastases to bone but not to lungs. Together, these observations identify AR signaling in CTCs from women with bone-predominant ER+ breast cancer, and provide a rationale for testing androgen inhibitors in this subset of patients.
2018-02-19 | GSE86978 | GEO
Project description:Breast cancer bone metastases are common and incurable. Tumoral integrin β3 (β3) expression is induced through interaction with the bone microenvironment. Although β3 is known to promote bone colonization, its functional role during therapy of established bone metastases is not known. We found increased numbers of β3+ tumor cells in murine bone metastases after docetaxel chemotherapy. β3+ tumor cells were present in 97% of post-neoadjuvant chemotherapy triple-negative breast cancer patient samples (n = 38). High tumoral β3 expression was associated with worse outcomes in both pre- and postchemotherapy triple-negative breast cancer groups. Genetic deletion of tumoral β3 had minimal effect in vitro, but significantly enhanced in vivo docetaxel activity, particularly in the bone. Rescue experiments confirmed that this effect required intact β3 signaling. Ultrastructural, transcriptomic, and functional analyses revealed an alternative metabolic response to chemotherapy in β3-expressing cells characterized by enhanced oxygen consumption, reactive oxygen species generation, and protein production. We identified mTORC1 as a candidate for therapeutic targeting of this β3-mediated, chemotherapy-induced metabolic response. mTORC1 inhibition in combination with docetaxel synergistically attenuated murine bone metastases. Furthermore, micelle nanoparticle delivery of mTORC1 inhibitor to cells expressing activated αvβ3 integrins enhanced docetaxel efficacy in bone metastases. Taken together, we show that β3 integrin induction by the bone microenvironment promotes resistance to chemotherapy through an altered metabolic response that can be defused by combination with αvβ3-targeted mTORC1 inhibitor nanotherapy. Our work demonstrates the importance of the metastatic microenvironment when designing treatments and presents new, bone-specific strategies for enhancing chemotherapeutic efficacy.
| S-EPMC8442608 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Bone is the most frequent site of metastases from breast cancer (BC), although no biomarkers are yet available to predict the risk of skeletal dissemination. Here, we attempted to identify a gene signature correlated with bone metastasis (BM) onset in circulating tumor cells (CTCs) isolated from 40 metastatic BC patients, grouped according to their metastasis sites at the time of enrollment, namely “BM” (bone-only), “ES” (extra-skeletal) or “BM+ES” (bone and extra-skeletal). A 134-gene panel, derived from an extensive literature review, was validated on sub-clones of the MDA-MB-231 BC cell line with variable organotropism and then applied to CTC groups for targeted RNA sequencing. No correlation was found between CTC number and clinico-pathologic variables, whereas 31 differentially expressed genes emerged from “BM” and “ES” CTC comparison. The putative prognostic meaning of the “top-10” most deregulated genes was finally explored and pointed out by employing an external BC dataset.
2020-10-29 | GSE160314 | GEO
Project description:BackgroundIn order to design studies assessing the optimal use of bone-targeted agents (BTAs) patient input is clearly desirable.MethodsPatients who were receiving a BTA for metastatic prostate or breast cancer were surveyed at two Canadian cancer centres. Statistical analysis of respondent data was performed to establish relevant proportions of patient responses.ResultsResponses were received from 141 patients, 76 (53.9%) with prostate cancer and 65 (46.1%) with breast cancer. Duration of BTA use was <3 months (15.9%) to >24 months (35.2%). Patients were uncertain how long they would remain on a BTA. While most felt their BTA was given to reduce the chance of bone fractures (77%), 52% thought it would slow tumour growth. Prostate patients were more likely to receive denosumab and breast cancer patients, pamidronate. There was more variability in the dosing interval for breast cancer patients. Given a choice, most patients (49-57%) would prefer injection therapy to oral therapy (21-23%). Most patients (58-64%) were interested in enrolling in clinical trials of de-escalated therapy.ConclusionWhile there were clear differences in the types of BTAs patients received, our survey showed similarity for both prostate and breast cancer patients with respect to their perceptions of the goals of therapy. Patients were interested in participating in trials of de-escalated therapy. However, given that patients receive a range of agents for varying periods of time and in different locations (e.g. hospital vs. home), the design of future trials will need to be pragmatic to reflect this.
| S-EPMC4723402 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Breast cancer is prone to form bone metastases and subsequent skeletal-related events (SREs) dramatically decrease patients' quality of life and survival. Prediction and early management of bone lesions are valuable; however, proper prognostic models are inadequate. In the current study, we reviewed a total of 572 breast cancer patients in three microarray data sets including 191 bone metastases and 381 metastases-free. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) indicated less aggressive and low-grade features of patients with bone metastases compared with metastases-free ones, while luminal subtypes are more prone to form bone metastases. Five bone metastases-related genes (KRT23, REEP1, SPIB, ALDH3B2, and GLDC) were identified and subjected to construct a gene expression signature-based nomogram (GESBN) model. The model performed well in both training and testing sets for evaluation of breast cancer bone metastases (BCBM). Clinically, the model may help in prediction of early bone metastases, prevention and management of SREs, and even help to prolong survivals for patients with BCBM. The five-gene GESBN model showed some implications as molecular diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets. Furthermore, our study also provided a way for analysis of tumor organ-specific metastases. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first published model focused on tumor organ-specific metastases.
| S-EPMC6346244 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The continuous release of bone-stored growth factors after bone resorption promotes the colonization of circulating cancer cells. However, the precise role of each of the various growth factors remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the role of bone-derived insulin-like growth factor (IGF) in the development of bone metastases in an animal model of breast cancer. We found that local stimulation of calvarial bone resorption before cell inoculation stimulated subsequent bone metastases to that site in vivo, although inhibition of bone resorption inhibited bone metastases. Anchorage-independent growth of cancer cells was stimulated by the culture supernatants from resorbed bones, which contained elevated levels of IGF-I. This stimulation was blocked by IGF type I receptor (IGF-IR) neutralizing antibody, but not antibody targeting other bone-stored growth factors including TGF-?, fibroblast growth factors, and platelet-derived growth factors. Although recombinant human IGF-I caused IGF-IR tyrosine autophosphorylation, followed by activation of Akt and NF-?B in cancer cells, dominant-negative inhibition of IGF-IR, Akt, or NF-?B significantly reduced bone metastases with increased apoptosis and decreased mitosis in metastatic cells. Together, our findings suggest that bone-derived IGF-I bridges the crosstalk between bone and metastasized cancer cells via activation of the IGF-IR/Akt/NF-?B pathway. Disruption of this pathway therefore may represent a promising therapeutic intervention for bone metastasis.
| S-EPMC3438359 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Bone metastases occur in approximately 70% of metastatic breast cancer patients, often leading to skeletal injuries. Current treatments are mainly palliative and underscore the unmet clinical need for improved therapies. In this study, we provide preclinical evidence for an antimetastatic therapy based on targeting integrin ?3 (?3), which is selectively induced on breast cancer cells in bone by the local bone microenvironment. In a preclinical model of breast cancer, ?3 was strongly expressed on bone metastatic cancer cells, but not primary mammary tumors or visceral metastases. In tumor tissue from breast cancer patients, ?3 was significantly elevated on bone metastases relative to primary tumors from the same patient (n = 42). Mechanistic investigations revealed that TGF? signaling through SMAD2/SMAD3 was necessary for breast cancer induction of ?3 within the bone. Using a micelle-based nanoparticle therapy that recognizes integrin ?v?3 (?v?3-MPs of ?12.5 nm), we demonstrated specific localization to breast cancer bone metastases in mice. Using this system for targeted delivery of the chemotherapeutic docetaxel, we showed that bone tumor burden could be reduced significantly with less bone destruction and less hepatotoxicity compared with equimolar doses of free docetaxel. Furthermore, mice treated with ?v?3-MP-docetaxel exhibited a significant decrease in bone-residing tumor cell proliferation compared with free docetaxel. Taken together, our results offer preclinical proof of concept for a method to enhance delivery of chemotherapeutics to breast cancer cells within the bone by exploiting their selective expression of integrin ?v?3 at that metastatic site. Cancer Res; 77(22); 6299-312. ©2017 AACR.
| S-EPMC5841166 | biostudies-other
Project description: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 novel experimental model of tumor dormancy employing circulating tumor cells (CTCs) derived from metastatic breast cancer patients (de novo CTCs), transplanted them in immunocompromised mice, and re-isolated these cells from xenografted mice bone marrow (ex vivo BMRCs) and blood (ex vivo CTCs) to perform downstream transcriptomic analyses. Here we report that the balance between mTORC1 vs mTORC2 signaling regulates BMRC mitotic and/or dormancy characteristics.
2020-05-15 | GSE150624 | GEO
Project description:BACKGROUND:Bone-targeted agents are usually administered to breast cancer patients with bone metastases every 3-4 weeks. Less frequent ('de-escalated') treatment may provide similar benefits with improved safety and reduced cost. METHODS:To systematically review randomised trials comparing de-escalated treatment with bone-targeted agents (i.e. every 12-16 weeks) to standard treatment (i.e. every 3-4 weeks), a formal systematic review of the literature was performed. Two individuals independently screened citations and full text articles. Random effects meta-analyses of clinically important outcomes were planned provided homogeneous studies were identified. RESULTS:Five relevant studies (n=1287 patients) were identified. Sample size ranged from 38 to 425. Information on outcomes including occurrence of SREs, bone pain, urinary N-telopeptide concentrations, serum C-telopeptide concentrations, pain medication use and safety outcomes was not consistently available. Two trials were non-inferiority studies, two dose-response evaluations and one was a pilot study. Bone-targeted agents use varied between studies, as did duration of prior therapy. Patient populations were considered heterogeneous in several ways, and thus no meta-analyses were performed. Observations from the included studies suggest there is potential that 3 month de-escalated treatment may provide similar benefits compared to 3-4 weekly treatment and that lower doses of zoledronic acid and denosumab might be equally effective. CONCLUSIONS:Studies comparing standard and de-escalated treatment with bone-targeted agents in breast cancer are rare. The benefits of standard treatment compared to de-escalated therapy on important clinical outcomes remain unclear. Future pragmatic studies must be conducted to determine the merits of this approach.
| S-EPMC4723383 | biostudies-literature