INFLUENCE OF MICRO-ENVIRONMENT AND VASCULAR ANATOMY ON METASTATIC COLONIZATION POTENTIAL OF MAMMARY-TUMORS

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  • 1 January 1981
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 41  (9) , 3604-3609
Abstract
Cell suspensions obtained by disaggregation of a series of naturally-occurring murine mammary tumors were each inoculated by 4 different routes into separate batches of syngeneic animals and the resulting degree and distribution of colonization were studied 90 days later at autopsy. Standard doses of 1 million viable tumor cells were injected i.p. or s.c. into the tail vein or the hepatic portal vein. Some tumors could reproducibly colonize by all routes, whereas others could colonize only by a few and the combination of sites colonized varied from tumor to tumor; still others were unable to grow in any site. Cells from nonneoplastic lactating mammary glands did not establish any colonies. Individual naturally occurring mammary tumors differ in their pulmonary colonization potentials after i.v. inoculation and the potential of a given tumor is an intrinsic property of its constituent cells. The current findings are evidence that the microenvironment of an organ can inhibit or permit expression of this intrinsic potential and that the degree and sites of colonization are thus the results of interaction between tumor and organ-specific factors. Circulatory anatomy apparently partially influenced the distribution of colonies and colonization of distant organs after blood-borne dissemination is distinct from general tumor transplantability.

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