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Combined effects on tumor growth and metastasis by anti-estrogenic and antiangiogenic therapies in MMTV-neu mice

Gene Therapy volume 9, pages 1338–1341 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

Breast tumor growth and metastasization are both hormone-sensitive and angiogenesis-dependent. Recent work carried out in our laboratory on a transgenic model of breast cancer displaying many similarities to its human counterpart, has shown that liposome-mediated angiostatin cDNA delivery partially inhibits both local and metastatic growth. However, it is now recognized that anti-angiogenesis strategy alone cannot completely arrest tumor growth and spread, and this led to the suggestion that approaches based on different molecular mechanisms could usefully be combined. In the present work, we investigated whether tamoxifen, a classical antiestrogen agent widely used in human therapy, could improve the results obtained with angiostatin alone. Further reduction of local growth was achieved with the combined regimen with respect to angiostatin or tamoxifen alone, while, as expected, no metastatic growth was detected in either group. We therefore conclude that a combination of angiogenesis inhibitors with antiestrogen drugs might be useful in humans and that other associations between conventional and gene transfer-mediated therapy are worth investigating and will soon become important components of anticancer therapy.

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Acknowledgements

The technical assistance of Lucia Susani and Massimiliano Mirolo is acknowledged. The financial support of AIRC to MGS and of CNR PF Biotechnology to PV is gratefully acknowledged. This is manuscript no. 61 of the Genoma 2000/ITBA Project funded by CARIPLO.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Genome and Multifactorial Diseases, Istituto di Tecnologie Biomediche, ITB-CNR, Milan, Italy

    M G Sacco, S Soldati, E Mira Cató, L Cattaneo & P Vezzoni

  2. Istituto di Anatomia Patologica Veterinaria e Patologia Aviare, University of Milan, Milan, Italy

    S Soldati & E Scanziani

  3. Laboratory of Cell Therapy, Poliambulanza Hospital, Brescia, Italy

    L Cattaneo

  4. Istituto Nazionale Tumori, Milan, Italy

    G Pratesi

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  1. M G Sacco
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  2. S Soldati
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Sacco, M., Soldati, S., Mira Cató, E. et al. Combined effects on tumor growth and metastasis by anti-estrogenic and antiangiogenic therapies in MMTV-neu mice. Gene Ther 9, 1338–1341 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.gt.3301817

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.gt.3301817

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