The inflammatory cytokine TNFα cooperates with Ras in elevating metastasis and turns WT-Ras to a tumor-promoting entity in MCF-7 cells

Abstract

In the present study we determined the relative contribution of two processes to breast cancer progression: (1) Intrinsic events, such as activation of the Ras pathway and down-regulation of p53; (2) The inflammatory cytokines TNFα and IL-1β, shown in our published studies to be highly expressed in tumors of >80% of breast cancer patients with recurrent disease.