Cancerous phenotypes associated with hypoxia-inducible factors are not influenced by the volatile anesthetic isoflurane in renal cell carcinoma

The possibility that anesthesia during cancer surgery may affect cancer recurrence, metastasis, and patient prognosis has become one of the most important topics of interest in cancer treatment. For example, the volatile anesthetic isoflurane was reported in several studies to induce hypoxia-inducible factors, and thereby enhance malignant phenotypes in vitro. Indeed, these transcription factors are considered critical regulators of cancer-related hallmarks, including “sustained proliferative signaling, evasion of growth suppressors, resistance to cell death, replicative immortality, angiogenesis, invasion, and metastasis.” This study aimed to investigate the impact of isoflurane on the growth and migration of derivatives of the renal cell line RCC4. We indicated that isoflurane treatment did not positively influence cancer cell phenotypes, and that hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs) maintain hallmark cancer cell phenotypes including gene expressions signature, metabolism, cell proliferation and cell motility. The present results indicate that HIF activity is not influenced by the volatile anesthetic isoflurane.

癌症手术期间的麻醉可能影响肿瘤复发、转移及患者预后，这一可能性已成为癌症治疗领域备受关注的重要课题之一。例如，多项研究显示挥发性麻醉剂异氟烷（isoflurane）可诱导缺氧诱导因子（hypoxia-inducible factors, HIFs）的表达，进而在体外增强肿瘤细胞的恶性表型。事实上，这类转录因子被认为是癌症相关标志性特征的关键调控因子，这些特征包括"持续增殖信号通路、逃逸生长抑制、抵抗细胞死亡、复制永生、血管生成、侵袭与转移"。本研究旨在探究异氟烷对肾细胞系RCC4衍生细胞的生长与迁移能力的影响。本研究结果显示，异氟烷处理并未对肿瘤细胞表型产生正向影响；而缺氧诱导因子（HIFs）则可维持肿瘤细胞的标志性表型，包括基因表达特征、代谢状态、细胞增殖与细胞运动能力。本研究结果表明，挥发性麻醉剂异氟烷并不会影响缺氧诱导因子的活性。