Steroid Tumor Environment in Male and Female Mice Model of Canine and Human Inflammatory Breast Cancer

Canine inflammatory mammary cancer (IMC) shares clinical and histopathological characteristics with human inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) and has been proposed as a good model for studying the human disease. The aim of this study was to evaluate the capacity of female and male mice to reproduce IMC and IBC tumors and identify the hormonal tumor environment. To perform the study sixty 6–8-week-old male and female mice were inoculated subcutaneously with a suspension of 10(6)IPC-366 and SUM149 cells. Tumors and serum were collected and used for hormonal analysis. Results revealed that IPC-366 reproduced tumors in 90% of males inoculated after 2 weeks compared with 100% of females that reproduced tumor at the same time. SUM149 reproduced tumors in 40% of males instead of 80% of females that reproduced tumors after 4 weeks. Both cell lines produce distant metastasis in lungs being higher than the metastatic rates in females. EIA analysis revealed that male tumors had higher T and SO4E1 concentrations compared to female tumors. Serum steroid levels were lower than those found in tumors. In conclusion, IBC and IMC male mouse model is useful as a tool for IBC research and those circulating estrogens and intratumoral hormonal levels are crucial in the development and progression of tumors.