Histone deacetylase inhibitors restore toxic BH3 domain protein expression in anoikis-resistant mammary and brain cancer stem cells, thereby enhancing the response to anti-ERBB1/ERBB2 therapy.

The present studies focused on defining the mechanisms by which anoikis-resistant (AR) mammary carcinoma cells can be reverted to a therapy-sensitive phenotype. AR mammary carcinoma cells had reduced expression of the toxic BH3 domain proteins BAX, BAK, NOXA, and PUMA. In AR cells expression of the protective BCL-2 family proteins BCL-XL and MCL-1 was increased.

Sorafenib/regorafenib and phosphatidyl inositol 3 kinase/thymoma viral proto-oncogene inhibition interact to kill tumor cells.

The present studies were undertaken to determine whether the multikinase inhibitors sorafenib/regorafenib cooperated with clinically relevant , phosphatidyl inositol 3 kinase (PI3K)-thymoma viral proto-oncogene (AKT) inhibitors to kill tumor cells. In liver, colorectal, lung, breast, kidney, and brain cancer cells, at clinically achievable doses, sorafenib/regorafenib and the PI3K inhibitor acetic acid (1S,4E,10R,11R,13S,14R)-[4-diallylaminomethylene-6-hydroxy-1-methoxymethyl-10,13-dimethyl-3,7,17-trioxo-1,3,4,7,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17-dodecahydro-2-oxa-cyclopenta[a]phenanthren-11-yl ester (PX-866) cooperated in a greater than additive fashion to kill tumor cells. Cells lacking phosphatase and tensin homolog were as sensitive to the drug combination as cells expressing the protein.

In vivo evolution of tumor-derived endothelial cells.

The growth of a malignant tumor beyond a certain, limited size requires that it first develop an independent blood supply. In addition to providing metabolic support, this neovasculature also allows tumor cells to access the systemic circulation, thus facilitating metastatic dissemination. The neovasculature may originate either from normal blood vessels in close physical proximity to the tumor and/or from the recruitment of bone marrow-derived endothelial cell (EC) precursors.

Permanently blocked stem cells derived from breast cancer cell lines.

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are thought to be resistant to standard chemotherapeutic drugs and the inimical conditions of the tumor microenvironment. Obtaining CSCs in sufficient quantities and maintaining their undifferentiated state have been major hurdles to their further characterization and to the identification of new pharmaceuticals that preferentially target these cells. We describe here the tagging of CSC-like populations from four human breast cancer cell lines with green fluorescent protein (GFP) under the control of the Oct3/4 stem cell-specific promoter.

Endothelial-like cells derived directly from human tumor xenografts.

Tumor-associated endothelial cells (TAECs) harboring various genomic abnormalities have been described in human cancers although their origins remain obscure. We generated 4 human cancer cell lines tagged with multiple markers, grew them as xenografts, and characterized their TAECs. Depending on their tumor of origin, 5-40% of TAECs reproducibly expressed all tags.