Scientists study the behaviour of isolated cells grown in the laboratory for insights into how cells function in the body in health and disease. Experiments using cell culture are used for developing new diagnostic tests and new treatments for diseases. This is a list of major breast cancer cell lines that are primarily used in breast cancer research. [Notes 1]
Cell line | Primary tumor | Origin of cells | Estrogen receptors | Progesterone receptors | ERBB2 amplification | Mutated TP53 [Notes 2] | Tumorigenic in mice | Reference | External links |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
600MPE | Invasive ductal carcinoma | + | – | – | [3] | Cellosaurus | |||
AMJ13 | Invasive ductal carcinoma | Primary | Yes | Yes | No | - | - | [4] | Cellosaurus |
AU565 | Adenocarcinoma | – | – | + | – | [3] | Cellosaurus | ||
BT-20 | Invasive ductal carcinoma | Primary | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | [5] | Cellosaurus |
BT-474 | Invasive ductal carcinoma | Primary | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | [6] | Cellosaurus |
BT-483 | Invasive ductal carcinoma | + | + | – | [3] | Cellosaurus | |||
BT-549 | Invasive ductal carcinoma | – | – | + | [3] | Cellosaurus | |||
Evsa-T | Invasive ductal carcinoma, mucin-producing, signet-ring type | Metastasis (ascites) | No | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | [7] | Cellosaurus |
Hs578T | Invasive ductal carcinoma | Primary | No | No | No | Yes | No | [8] | Cellosaurus |
MCF-7 | Invasive ductal carcinoma | Metastasis (pleural effusion) | Yes | Yes [9] | No | No (wild-type) | Yes (with estrogen supplementation) | [10] | Cellosaurus |
MDA-MB-231 | Adenocarcinoma | Metastasis (pleural effusion) | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | [11] | Cellosaurus |
SkBr3 | Invasive ductal carcinoma | Metastasis (pleural effusion) | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | [12] | Cellosaurus |
T-47D | Invasive ductal carcinoma | Metastasis (pleural effusion) | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes (with estrogen supplementation) | [13] | Cellosaurus |
ZR-75-1 | Invasive ductal carcinoma | [14] | Cellosaurus |
Autocrine signaling is a form of cell signaling in which a cell secretes a hormone or chemical messenger that binds to autocrine receptors on that same cell, leading to changes in the cell. This can be contrasted with paracrine signaling, intracrine signaling, or classical endocrine signaling.
Mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV) is a milk-transmitted retrovirus like the HTL viruses, HI viruses, and BLV. It belongs to the genus Betaretrovirus. MMTV was formerly known as Bittner virus, and previously the "milk factor", referring to the extra-chromosomal vertical transmission of murine breast cancer by adoptive nursing, demonstrated in 1936, by John Joseph Bittner while working at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine. Bittner established the theory that a cancerous agent, or "milk factor", could be transmitted by cancerous mothers to young mice from a virus in their mother's milk. The majority of mammary tumors in mice are caused by mouse mammary tumor virus.
In medicine, Meigs's syndrome, also Meigs syndrome or Demons–Meigs syndrome, is the triad of ascites, pleural effusion, and benign ovarian tumor. Meigs syndrome resolves after the resection of the tumor. Because the transdiaphragmatic lymphatic channels are larger in diameter on the right, the pleural effusion is classically on the right side. The causes of the ascites and pleural effusion are poorly understood. Atypical Meigs syndrome, characterized by a benign pelvic mass with right-sided pleural effusion but without ascites, can also occur. As in typical Meigs syndrome, pleural effusion resolves after removal of the pelvic mass.
Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), also known as intraductal carcinoma, is a pre-cancerous or non-invasive cancerous lesion of the breast. DCIS is classified as Stage 0. It rarely produces symptoms or a breast lump one can feel, typically being detected through screening mammography. It has been diagnosed in a significant percentage of men.
Marc Guy Albert Marie Lacroix is a biochemist and a researcher who specializes in breast cancer biology, metastasis and therapy.
Estrogen receptor beta (ERβ) also known as NR3A2 is one of two main types of estrogen receptor—a nuclear receptor which is activated by the sex hormone estrogen. In humans ERβ is encoded by the ESR2 gene.
Medullary breast carcinoma is a rare type of breast cancer that is characterized as a relatively circumscribed tumor with pushing, rather than infiltrating, margins. It is histologically characterized as poorly differentiated cells with abundant cytoplasm and pleomorphic high grade vesicular nuclei. It involves lymphocytic infiltration in and around the tumor and can appear to be brown in appearance with necrosis and hemorrhage. Prognosis is measured through staging but can often be treated successfully and has a better prognosis than other infiltrating breast carcinomas.
The estrogen receptor test (ERT) uses the estrogen receptor (ER) tumor marker that allows for immunohistochemical techniques to be performed for diagnostic purposes. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) techniques involve the selective identification of antigen proteins by exploiting these antigen-antibody relationships to characterize your analyte of interest. Previously, the ligand binding assay has been used in the determination of ER activity, however, this method was limited because of the requirement of large quantities of fresh tissue needed for each assay. IHC serves as a more efficient method as this technique allows for the morphology of the tissue to be observed in a tumor-specific manner. This increases the practicability of this technique as in many cases, patients’ tissue samples are limited in the applications of biomarker analysis. Anti-estrogen receptor antibodies were among the first of biomarkers that introduced a semi-quantitative assessment of the ER activity. Today, ER analysis is one of many routinely performed immunohistochemical assays performed to classify the hormone receptor status and to serve as a means of insight into the determination of cancer prognosis and management.
GATA3 is a transcription factor that in humans is encoded by the GATA3 gene. Studies in animal models and humans indicate that it controls the expression of a wide range of biologically and clinically important genes.
Prolactin-inducible protein also known as gross cystic disease fluid protein 15 (GCDFP-15), extra-parotid glycoprotein (EP-GP), gp17seminal actin-binding protein (SABP) or BRST2 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the PIP gene. It is upregulated by prolactin and androgens and downregulated by estrogen.
Metastasis-associated protein MTA3 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the MTA3 gene. MTA3 protein localizes in the nucleus as well as in other cellular compartments MTA3 is a component of the nucleosome remodeling and deacetylate (NuRD) complex and participates in gene expression. The expression pattern of MTA3 is opposite to that of MTA1 and MTA2 during mammary gland tumorigenesis. However, MTA3 is also overexpressed in a variety of human cancers.
Zinc finger protein 366, also known as DC-SCRIPT, is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ZNF366 gene. The ZNF366 gene was first identified in a DNA comparison study between 85 kb of Fugu rubripes sequence containing 17 genes with its homologous loci in the human draft genome.
MCF-7 is a breast cancer cell line isolated in 1970 from a 69-year-old White woman. MCF-7 is the acronym of Michigan Cancer Foundation-7, referring to the institute in Detroit where the cell line was established in 1973 by Herbert Soule and co-workers. The Michigan Cancer Foundation is now known as the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute.
Male breast cancer (MBC) is a cancer in males that originates in their breasts. Males account for less than 1% of new breast cancers with about 20,000 new cases being diagnosed worldwide every year. Its incidence rates in males vs. females are, respectively, 0.4 and 66.7 per 100,000 person-years. The worldwide incidences of male as well as female breast cancers have been increasing over the last few decades. Currently, one of every 800 men are estimated to develop this cancer during their lifetimes.
Breast cancer metastatic mouse models are experimental approaches in which mice are genetically manipulated to develop a mammary tumor leading to distant focal lesions of mammary epithelium created by metastasis. Mammary cancers in mice can be caused by genetic mutations that have been identified in human cancer. This means models can be generated based upon molecular lesions consistent with the human disease.
T-47D is a human breast cancer cell line commonly used in biomedical research involving the hormonal expression of cancer cells.
A hormone-sensitive cancer, or hormone-dependent cancer, is a type of cancer that is dependent on a hormone for growth and/or survival. Examples include breast cancer, which is dependent on estrogens like estradiol, and prostate cancer, which is dependent on androgens like testosterone.
Relda Marie Cailleau was an American scientist primarily known for her establishment of a series of breast cancer cell lines that have been crucial to the discovery of anticancer drugs and to an understanding of breast cancer biology.
Papillary carcinomas of the breast (PCB), also termed malignant papillary carcinomas of the breast, are rare forms of the breast cancers. The World Health Organization (2019) classified papillary neoplasms of the breast into 5 types: intraductal papilloma, papillary ductal carcinoma in situ (PDCIS), encapsulated papillary carcinoma (EPC), solid-papillary carcinoma (SPC), and invasive papillary carcinoma (IPC). The latter four carcinomas are considered here; intraductal papilloma is a benign neoplasm considered in its Wikipedia page. The World Health Organization regarded solid papillary carcinoma as having two subtypes: in situ and invasive SPC.
Pure apocrine carcinoma of the breast (PACB) is a rare carcinoma derived from the epithelial cells in the lactiferous ducts of the mammary gland. The mammary gland is an apocrine gland. Its lactiferous ducts have two layers of epithelial cells, a luminal layer which faces the duct's lumen and a basal layer which lies beneath the luminal layer. There are at least 4 subtypes of epithelial cells in these ducts: luminal progenitor cells and luminal mature cells which reside in the luminal layer and mammary stem cells and basal cells which reside in the basal layer. Examination of the genes expressed in PACB cancer cells indicate that most of these tumors consist of cells derived from luminal cells but a minority of these tumors consist of cells derived from basal cells.