Inflammatory breast cancer: Vasculogenic mimicry and its hemodynamics of an inflammatory breast cancer xenograft model
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* Corresponding author: Kazuo Shirakawa shirak@saitama-med.ac.jp
1 Department of Surgery, Kawagoe Medical Center, Saitama Medical School, Saitama, Japan
2 Pharmacology Division, National Cancer Center Research Institute, Tokyo, Japan
3 Hitachi Medical Co, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Imagiology, Kyoto, Japan
Breast Cancer Res 2003, 5:136-139 doi:10.1186/bcr585
Published: 6 March 2003Abstract
We recently established a new human inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) xenograft (WIBC-9) originating from a patient with IBC. The original tumor and WIBC-9 revealed invasive ductal carcinoma with a hypervascular structure of solid nests and marked lymphatic permeation in the overlying dermis. In the central part of the solid nests, vasculogenic mimicry, which showed an absence of endothelial cells, was observed. Comparison of WIBC-9 with an established non-IBC xenograft (MC-5), using time-course dynamic micro-magnetic resonance angiography analysis (with a newly developed intravascular macromolecular contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging) demonstrated that the WIBC-9 tumor had blood flow and a vascular mimicry–angiogenesis junction.