Research
A considerable part of the current knowledge on breast carcinomas is based on in vivo and in vitro studies performed with breast cancer cell (BCC) lines. These provide an unlimited source of homogenous self-replicating material, free of contaminating stromal cells, and often easily cultured in simple standard media. The first line described, BT-20, was established in 1958. Since then, and despite sustained work in this area, the number of permanent lines obtained has been strikingly low (about 100). Indeed, attempts to culture BCC from primary tumors have been largely unsuccessful. This poor efficiency was often due to technical difficulties associated with the extraction of viable tumor cells from their surrounding stroma. Most of the available BCC lines issued from metastatic tumors, mainly from pleural effusions. Effusions provided generally large numbers of dissociated, viable tumor cells with little or no contamination by fibroblasts and other tumor stroma cells. Many of the currently used BCC lines were established in the late 1970s. A very few of them, namely MCF-7, T-47D, and MDA-MB-231, account for more than two-thirds of all abstracts reporting studies on mentioned BCC lines, as concluded from a Medline-based survey.
Treatments are constantly evaluated in randomized, controlled trials, to evaluate and compare individual drugs, combinations of drugs, and surgical and radiation techniques. The latest research is reported annually at scientific meetings such as that of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, and the St. Gallen Oncology Conference in St. Gallen, Switzerland. These studies are reviewed by professional societies and other organizations, and formulated into guidelines for specific treatment groups and risk category.
- List of cell lines
Mainly based on Lacroix and Leclercq (2004). For more data on the nature of TP53 mutations in breast cancer cell lines, see Lacroix et al. (2006).
- This is an incomplete list, which may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.
| Cell line | Primary tumor | Origin of cells | Estrogen receptors | Progesterone receptors | ERBB2 amplification | Mutated TP53 | Tumorigenic in mice | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 600MPE | Invasive ductal carcinoma | + | – | – | ||||
| AU565 | Adenocarcinoma | – | – | + | – | |||
| BT-20 | Invasive ductal carcinoma | Primary | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | |
| BT-474 | Invasive ductal carcinoma | Primary | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| BT-483 | Invasive ductal carcinoma | + | + | – | ||||
| BT-549 | Invasive ductal carcinoma | – | – | + | ||||
| Evsa-T | Invasive ductal carcinoma, mucin-producing, signet-ring type | Metastasis (ascites) | No | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | |
| Hs578T | Carcinosarcoma | Primary | No | No | No | Yes | No | |
| MCF-7 | Invasive ductal carcinoma | Metastasis (pleural effusion) | Yes | Yes | No | No (wild-type) | Yes (with estrogen supplementation) | |
| MDA-MB-231 | Invasive ductal carcinoma | Metastasis (pleural effusion) | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | |
| SkBr3 | Invasive ductal carcinoma | Metastasis (pleural effusion) | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | |
| T-47D | Invasive ductal carcinoma | Metastasis (pleural effusion) | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes (with estrogen supplementation) |
Read more about this topic: Breast Cancer
Famous quotes containing the word research:
“Our science has become terrible, our research dangerous, our findings deadly. We physicists have to make peace with reality. Reality is not as strong as we are. We will ruin reality.”
—Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)
“The research on gender and morality shows that women and men looked at the world through very different moral frameworks. Men tend to think in terms of “justice” or absolute “right and wrong,” while women define morality through the filter of how relationships will be affected. Given these basic differences, why would men and women suddenly agree about disciplining children?”
—Ron Taffel (20th century)
“The great question that has never been answered and which I have not get been able to answer, despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is “What does a women want?””
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)