Emodin reduces surgical wounding‐accelerated tumor growth and metastasis via macrophage suppression in a murine triple‐negative breast cancer model

It has been suspected that tumor resection surgery itself may accelerate breast cancer (BC) lung metastasis in some patients. Emodin, a natural anthraquinone found in the roots and rhizomes of various plants, exhibits anticancer activity. We examined the perioperative use of emodin in our established surgery wounding murine BC model. Emodin reduced primary BC tumor growth and metastasis in the lungs in both sham and surgical wounded mice, consistent with a reduction in proliferation and enhanced apoptosis (primary tumor and lungs). Further, emodin reduced systemic inflammation, most notably the number of monocytes in the peripheral blood and reduced pro‐tumoral M2 macrophages in the primary tumor and the lungs. Consistently, we show that emodin reduces gene expression of select macrophage markers and associated cytokines in the primary tumor and lungs of wounded mice. Overall, we demonstrate that emodin is beneficial in mitigating surgical wounding accelerated lung metastasis in a model of triple‐negative BC, which appears to be mediated, at least in part, by its actions on macrophages. These data support the development of emodin as a safe, low‐cost, and effective agent to be used perioperatively to alleviate the surgery triggered inflammatory response and consequential metastasis of BC to the lungs.