influence of the fibrillar tumor microenvironment on the cell-cell contact response of migrating cancer cells

• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20211718

The breast tumor microenvironment is a dynamic niche in which cells interact with each other and remodel protein fibers to form an environment conducive to tumor cell invasion. Metastatic breast cancer cells invade along protein fibers, using them as a physical guidance cue out of the primary tumor. The alignment of these protein fibers promotes invasion and was recently identified as a prognostic indicator of metastatic disease. How migrating cancer cells interact with each other and with other cells in the confined, fibrillar tumor microenvironment remains unclear. Whether cancer cells are able to circumnavigate other cells and maintain an invasive migratory trajectory in a spatially constrained environment has important implications for understanding and treating metastatic breast cancer.