Metastatic immunoediting in breast cancer cells

During the metastatic process, most of the disseminated tumor cells fail to adapt to new tissue conditions upon arrival and die, resulting in a selection of the fittest cells. Among these hurdles, the immune system's anti-tumor activity is one of the main barriers of metastatic colonization. Among the different Metastasis-initiating cells (MICs) properties, immune evasion stands out as one of the most necessary traits leading metastasis. The immune landscape of distant organs impose immune pressure on tumor cells engaging a process of tumor-immune coevolution and selection of immune-evasive tumor cells, in a process called cancer immunoediting. In this study, we aimed to investigate the altered gene patterns of breast cancer cells induced by the interaction with the immune system. Specifically, we were looking for phenotypes and immune-evasive behaviour of immunoedited cells leading the metastatic colonization. Overall design: To evaluate immunoediting of tumor cells we interrogated the transcriptome of EpRas cells after metastatic spreading in immunodeficient (NSG) and immunocompenent (Balb/c) hosts. Brain, lung and liver metastatic samples were analyzed to study common and general transcriptomic changes.