Metastatic Mechanisms in Malignant Tumors

Sammanfattning: The ultimate cause of cancer related deaths is metastasis. This thesis is about three of the main human cancers; breast, colorectal and pancreatic cancer, that together account for more than 25% of the cancer-related deaths worldwide. The focus of the thesis is the spread of cancer, metastasis, and the aim was to investigate mechanisms that can be of importance for this process. We analyzed patient samples to validate the role of epithelialto-mesenchymal transition in vivo and found regulations of many related factors. However, these changes tend to fluctuate along the metastatic process, something which makes targeting complicated. We, moreover, focused on the influence of the tumor microenvironment for metastatic spread. In pancreatic cancer, the stroma constitutes the main part of many tumors. We analyzed the crosstalk between tumor and stromal cell and focused on the mediating inflammatory factor interleukin-1 (IL-1) and regulation of microRNAs. The results showed that the most commonly mutated factor in pancreatic cancer, KRAS, associates with the expression of IL-1 and subsequent activation of stromal cells. Blocking KRAS signaling together with IL-1 blockage give a more pronounced effect on in vitro proliferation and migration of cancer cells and suggests the use of a combination therapy. The cancer-associated activation of the stroma was found to be related to changes in microRNA expression. microRNA was analyzed separately in epithelial cells and stromal cells after microdissection of matched samples of primary and secondary tumors of breast and colorectal cancers. miR-214 and miR-199a were upregulated in stroma associated with progressive tumors and in pancreatic cancer stroma we could show that their expression alters the activation of stromal cells and thereby the growth and migratory ability of associated pancreatic tumor cells. In  breast and colorectal cancers we found several common microRNAs to be up- or downregulated in line with progression. We could show that one of these candidates, miR-18a, had a prognostic value in metastatic breast cancer. To further develop these studies we analyzed this microRNA in circulating microvesicles, i.e. exosomes, and investigated their role in the preparation of a pre-metastatic niche. MicroRNAs are stable biomarkers in the circulation, especially protected in exosomes, which can moreover specifically deliver their message to recipient cells. These studies facilitate the understanding of metastatic behavior and suggest new targets to stop cancer metastasis.