Human breast cancer invasion and aggression correlates with ECM stiffening and immune cell infiltration

Tumors are stiff and data suggest that the extracellular matrix stiffening that correlates with experimental mammary malignancy drives tumor invasion and metastasis. Nevertheless, the relationship between tissue and extracellular matrix stiffness and human breast cancer progression and aggression remains unclear. We undertook a biophysical and biochemical assessment of stromal-epithelial interactions in noninvasive, invasive and normal adjacent human breast tissue and in breast cancers of increasingly aggressive subtype. Our analysis revealed that human breast cancer transformation is accompanied by an incremental increase in collagen deposition and a progressive linearization and thickening of interstitial…

• NC
  National Cancer Institute

  Awards: F31 CA183255 to LC, R01 CA138818-01A1 to VMW, 1U01 ES019458-01 to VMW and ZW, VW, SH and LC, U54CA143836-01 to JL and VMW, R01 CA174929 to VMW CP, T32 CA108462-11 to ID