A link between premenopausal iron deficiency and breast cancer malignancy

BMC Cancer

Xi Huang¹  Jinqing Li²  Zhaoxu Yang³  Luis Chiriboga¹  Stephanie Krauter¹  Baljit Singh¹  Julia Smith¹  Deborah Axelrod¹  Yongzhao Shao⁴  Qing Yang⁴  Jinlong Jian⁴ 

[1]Department of Environmental Medicine, NYU Cancer Institute, NYU School of Medicine 550 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA

[2]Tangdu Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an 710032, P. R.China

[3]Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an 710032, P. R.China

[4]Department of Environmental Medicine, New York University (NYU), 550 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA

关键词: Hypoxia-inducible factors;    Epithelial mesenchymal transition;    Anemia;    Metastasis;    Young breast cancer;    Iron deficiency;   

Others  :  1079683
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2407-13-307

 received in 2012-11-13, accepted in 2013-06-14,  发布年份 2013

【 摘 要 】

Background

Young breast cancer (BC) patients less than 45 years old are at higher risk of dying from the disease when compared to their older counterparts. However, specific risk factors leading to this poorer outcome have not been identified.

Methods

One candidate is iron deficiency, as this is common in young women and a clinical feature of young age. In the present study, we used immuno-competent and immuno-deficient mouse xenograft models as well as hemoglobin as a marker of iron status in young BC patients to demonstrate whether host iron deficiency plays a pro-metastatic role.

Results

We showed that mice fed an iron-deficient diet had significantly higher tumor volumes and lung metastasis compared to those fed normal iron diets. Iron deficiency mainly altered Notch but not TGF-β and Wnt signaling in the primary tumor, leading to the activation of epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT). This was revealed by increased expression of Snai1 and decreased expression of E-cadherin. Importantly, correcting iron deficiency by iron therapy reduced primary tumor volume, lung metastasis, and reversed EMT markers in mice. Furthermore, we found that mild iron deficiency was significantly associated with lymph node invasion in young BC patients (p<0.002).

Conclusions

Together, our finding indicates that host iron deficiency could be a contributor of poor prognosis in young BC patients.

【 授权许可】

   
2013 Jian et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

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