title: Morphine Promotes Tumor Angiogenesis and Increases Breast Cancer Progression.
abstract: Morphine is considered a highly potent analgesic agent used to relieve suffering of patients with cancer. Several in vitro and in vivo studies showed that morphine also modulates angiogenesis and regulates tumour cell growth. Unfortunately, the results obtained by these studies are still contradictory. In order to better dissect the role of morphine in cancer cell growth and angiogenesis we performed in vitro studies on ER-negative human breast carcinoma cells, MDA.MB231 and in vivo studies on heterotopic mouse model of human triple negative breast cancer, TNBC. We demonstrated that morphine in vitro enhanced the proliferation and inhibited the apoptosis of MDA.MB231 cells. In vivo studies performed on xenograft mouse model of TNBC revealed that tumours of mice treated with morphine were larger than those observed in other groups. Moreover, morphine was able to enhance the neoangiogenesis. Our data showed that morphine at clinical relevant doses promotes angiogenesis and increases breast cancer progression.
authors.affiliation: Istituto Nazionale per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori "Fondazione G. Pascale", IRCCS, Via Mariano Semmola, 80131 Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Sabrina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bimonte
authors.affiliation: Istituto Nazionale per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori "Fondazione G. Pascale", IRCCS, Via Mariano Semmola, 80131 Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Barbieri
authors.affiliation: Istituto Nazionale per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori "Fondazione G. Pascale", IRCCS, Via Mariano Semmola, 80131 Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Domenica
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7162-6735
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rea
authors.affiliation: Istituto Nazionale per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori "Fondazione G. Pascale", IRCCS, Via Mariano Semmola, 80131 Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Palma
authors.affiliation: Istituto Nazionale per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori "Fondazione G. Pascale", IRCCS, Via Mariano Semmola, 80131 Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Luciano
authors.affiliation: Istituto Nazionale per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori "Fondazione G. Pascale", IRCCS, Via Mariano Semmola, 80131 Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Arturo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cuomo
authors.affiliation: Istituto Nazionale per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori "Fondazione G. Pascale", IRCCS, Via Mariano Semmola, 80131 Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Arra
authors.affiliation: Istituto Nazionale per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori "Fondazione G. Pascale", IRCCS, Via Mariano Semmola, 80131 Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Izzo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000187:drug effects; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000187:drug effects; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D009020:Morphine / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D064726:Triple Negative Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D023041:Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays
chemical_list: D009020:Morphine