Effects of astaxanthin on metastasis suppressors in ductal carcinoma. A preliminary study

Breast cancer (BC) is a major public health problem diagnosed in more than 2 million women worldwide in 2018, causing more than 600,000 deaths. 90% of deaths due to breast cancer are caused by metastasis. Metastasis is a complex process that is divided into several steps, including separation of tumor cells from the primary tumor, invasion, cell migration, intravasation, vasculature survival, extravasation, and colonization of the secondary site. Astaxanthin (AXT) is a marine-based ketocarotenoid that has many different potential functions such as anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and oxidative stress-reducing properties to potentially reduce the incidence of cancer or inhibit the expansion of tumor cells. This study aims to investigate the effects of astaxanthin as a new metastasis inhibitor on T47D human invasive ductal carcinoma breast cancer cell.

To investigate the effects of the astaxanthin as a new metastasis inhibitor on T47D cell, expression levels of anti-maspin, anti-Kai1, anti-BRMS1, and anti-MKK4 were examined by western blot. Also, we evaluated differences of these suppressors expression levels in tissue sections of 10 patients diagnosed with in situ and invasive ductal carcinoma by immunohistochemistry method.

250 μM astaxanthin increased the activation of all metastasis suppressing proteins. Also, these metastasis suppressors showed higher expression in invasive ductal carcinoma tissues than in situ ductal carcinoma patients.

We think that astaxanthin is a promising therapeutic agent for invasive ductal carcinoma patients. The effects of astaxanthin on metastasis in breast cancer should be investigated further based on these results.

Breast, cancer, metastasis.