Lung colonization and metastasis of murine mammary tumors: relationship to various characteristics of the primary tumors.

The ability to metastasize via the bloodstream of mammary tumors occurring in Balb/cfC3H and Balb/cfRIII mice (two substrains of identical Balb/c genotype carrying milk-transmitted C3H or RIII murine mammary tumor virus (MuMTV) infection, respectively) has been compared in MuMTV-free Balb/c virgin female recipients given intravenous tumor cell suspensions or subcutaneous solid tumor transplants from mammary tumor-bearing Balb/cfC3H and Balb/cfRIII breeding female donors. Tumor cell suspensions different for MuMTV inducing variant, growth rate, tumor size, and clinical duration, injected intravenously to Balb/c virgin female recipients, have been compared with respect to the foci of lung colonization induced in recipient hosts. The results obtained indicate that MuMTV variant, growth rate and clinical duration of the primary mammary tumor, but not the size of the primary tumor, significantly influence the lung colonization. Similar results were obtained with solid subcutaneous transplants of the same mammary tumors. The significance of these results for the understanding of the general mechanisms of tumor metastases is discussed.