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Updated: Nov 20, 2025

Generation of Organ-conditioned Media and Applications for Studying Organ-specific Influences on Breast Cancer Metastatic Behavior
Published on: June 13, 2016
The Metabolic Mechanisms of Breast Cancer Metastasis
Lingling Wang1,2, Shizhen Zhang3, Xiaochen Wang1
1Department of Breast Surgery, Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital, Hangzhou, China.
Abstract:
Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancy among women worldwide. Metastasis is mainly responsible for treatment failure and is the cause of most breast cancer deaths. The role of metabolism in the progression and metastasis of breast cancer is gradually being emphasized. However, the regulatory mechanisms that conduce to cancer metastasis by metabolic reprogramming in breast cancer have not been expounded. Breast cancer cells exhibit different metabolic phenotypes depending on their molecular subtypes and metastatic sites. Both intrinsic factors, such as MYC amplification, PIK3CA, and TP53 mutations, and extrinsic factors, such as hypoxia, oxidative stress, and acidosis, contribute to different metabolic reprogramming phenotypes in metastatic breast cancers. Understanding the metabolic mechanisms underlying breast cancer metastasis will provide important clues to develop novel therapeutic approaches for treatment of metastatic breast cancer.
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