Adipose microenvironment in breast cancer: Molecular subtype-dependent effect

Abstract

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common and deadliest cancer among women of all ages, classified into molecular subtypes including triple negative (TN) and hormone receptor positive (HR+). The tumor microenvironment, mainly adipose tissue, plays a crucial role in regulating disease progression. The aim was to compare the role of soluble factors released by the TN and HR+ breast adipose tumor microenvironments in disease progression. Conditioned media (CM) from adipose explants adjacent to HR+ and TN tumors (n = 29; MCT) were used to treat HR+ (MCF7 and T47D) and TN (MDA-MB-231) cell lines, respectively, and contrasted with CM from female donors (n = 21; MCN).