Paediatrics Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-1-2021
Journal
Cancers
Volume
13
Issue
5
First Page
1
Last Page
27
URL with Digital Object Identifier
10.3390/cancers13050942
Abstract
The formation of new blood (angiogenesis) and lymphatic (lymphangiogenesis) vessels are major events associated with most epithelial malignancies, including breast cancer. Angiogen-esis is essential for cancer cell survival. Lymphangiogenesis is critical in maintaining tumoral in-terstitial fluid balance and importing tumor-facilitatory immune cells. Both vascular routes also serve as conduits for cancer metastasis. Intratumoral hypoxia promotes both events by stimulating multiple angiogenic/lymphangiogenic growth factors. Studies on tumor-associated lymphangio-genesis and its exploitation for therapy have received less attention from the research community than those on angiogenesis. Inflammation is a key mediator of both processes, hijacked by many cancers by the aberrant expression of the inflammation-associated enzyme cyclo-oxygenase (COX)-2. In this review, we focus on breast cancer and showed that COX-2 is a major promoter of both events, primarily resulting from the activation of prostaglandin (PG) E receptor EP4 on tumor cells, tumor-infiltrating immune cells, and endothelial cells; and the induction of oncogenic mi-croRNAs. The COX-2/EP4 pathway also promotes additional events in breast cancer progression, such as cancer cell migration, invasion, and the stimulation of stem-like cells. Based on a combination of studies using multiple breast cancer models, we show that EP4 antagonists hold a major promise in breast cancer therapy in combination with other modalities including immune check-point inhibitors.