Su Guang-yan, Liu Yu-qin, Ren Le-rong, Liu Xian-feng, Gu Bei, Dong Ji-hong, Gao Jin
Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences; School of Basic Medicine, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100005, China.
Zhonghua Bing Li Xue Za Zhi. 2007 Nov;36(11):760-3.
Tumor dormancy has been defined clinically as a condition in which tumor cells are present but do not grow for a long period of time. Breast cancer is noted for its long periods of tumor dormancy and metastases can occur many years after treatment.
Simulating the characteristics of breast cancer patients after treatment, we established the animal model of breast cancer dormancy by inoculating 500 Ca761-03 cells into the limb muscle of 615 mice and then selecting animals with tumor dormancy 2 months post inoculation (corresponding to 5 years for humans).
Two months after inoculation of Ca761-03 cells into the muscle of 615 mice, tumor occurred in 30% of the mice. The remaining 70% of mice did not show tumor growth. After repeated traumatic stimulation, 90% of the mice developed tumors after 5 months, therefore representing tumor dormancy.
These results demonstrate that breast cancer cells can remain in a dormant state for long periods of time in vivo. Trauma can stimulate the dormant tumor cells to proliferate again, and causes tumor relapse. This murine model system promises a sound animal model for the study of solid tumor dormancy.
肿瘤休眠在临床上被定义为肿瘤细胞存在但长时间不生长的一种状态。乳腺癌以其长时间的肿瘤休眠为特征，转移可在治疗多年后发生。
模拟乳腺癌患者治疗后的特征，我们通过将500个Ca761-03细胞接种到615只小鼠的肢体肌肉中，然后选择接种后2个月出现肿瘤休眠的动物（相当于人类5年），建立了乳腺癌休眠动物模型。
将Ca761-03细胞接种到615只小鼠肌肉中2个月后，30%的小鼠出现肿瘤。其余70%的小鼠未显示肿瘤生长。反复创伤刺激后，90%的小鼠在5个月后发生肿瘤，因此表现为肿瘤休眠。
这些结果表明，乳腺癌细胞在体内可长时间处于休眠状态。创伤可刺激休眠的肿瘤细胞再次增殖，并导致肿瘤复发。这种小鼠模型系统有望成为研究实体瘤休眠的良好动物模型。
