Antiproliferative effects of rapamycin and celecoxib in angiosarcoma cell lines.

Background/aim: Beyond their primary field of application some well-established drugs exhibit antitumour effects in a variety of cancers. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of the COX2 inhibitor celecoxib and the mTOR antagonist rapamycin on angiosarcoma cell lines.

Materials And Methods: Cell proliferation was measured in ASM, ISOS 1 and ISO HAS angiosarcoma cell lines with the BrdU assay.

Results: In all angiosarcoma cell lines, celecoxib as well as rapamycin inhibited cell growth in a dose-dependent manner. In ASM and ISOS 1, but not in ISO HAS angiosarcoma cells, additive growth inhibitory effects were detected by combining both agents.

Conclusion: Our results indicate that angiosarcoma cell proliferation can be inhibited by subtoxic doses of rapamycin and celecoxib. Due to their direct and stroma-mediated anticancer activities, mTOR antagonists and COX2 inhibitors represent very promising drugs in the palliative treatment of angiosarcoma.