Factors Influencing Metastasis of Breast Cancer

Isolation and properties of cell lines from the metastasising rat mammary tumour SMT-2A

“…The SMT-2A metastasising rat mammary tumour is a transplantable tumour line which is syngeneic to the WF rat strain and is carried either as solid or ascitic form (Kim, 1979). When injected s.c. into the mammary fat pads of syngeneic rats, both forms produce solid tumours.…”

“…One rare example of a transplantable rat mammary tumour that does show widespread metastatic properties is SMT-2A (Kim, 1979). This transplantable tumour disseminates predominantly via the lymphatic system in Wistar Furth (WF) rats giving rise to widespread, gross metastases, including those in liver and bones, as well as those in lungs and lymph nodes (Kim, 1979).…”

“…This transplantable tumour disseminates predominantly via the lymphatic system in Wistar Furth (WF) rats giving rise to widespread, gross metastases, including those in liver and bones, as well as those in lungs and lymph nodes (Kim, 1979). Moreover, its tumours and metastases are composed of anaplastic cells of an epithelial (Ghosh et al, 1979), and not a myoepithelial origin (Dunnington et al, 1984a), like malignant breast disease in humans (Azzopardi, 1979;Gusterson et al, 1982).…”

“…The SMT-2A tumours also contain extensive numbers of non-neoplastic cells (Kim, 1979;Dunnington et al, 1984a). We now investigate the different viable cell types present in the SMT-2A tumour by isolating them as cell lines in tissue culture and characterising them with respect to morphological criteria and to their tumorigenic and metastatic properties when introduced into syngeneic rats and immune-deprived rodents.…”

Spontaneously metastasizing variants derived from MNU-induced rat mammary tumour

“…Few metastasizing animal models of breast cancer exist and those rat systems in current use (Kreider et al, 1976;Kim, 1979;Willmott et al, 1979;Dixon & Speakman, 1979) are not reported to contain measurable levels of cytoplasmic oestrogen receptor (RE,), whereas 700/0 of human breast carcinomas are RE+. We halve therefore been concerned to develop a more satisfactory animal model for use in studies of breast-cancer metastasis.…”