Effect of trauma of implantation of metastatic tumor in bone in mice

Abstract

We studied the influence of surgical trauma to the iliac bone on the implantation of I. V. injected tumor cells, which formed tumor in the surgical wounds of 27/84 mice (32%). None of these mice or nonsurgical mice developed tumor in the opposite or uninjured pelvic bone (P < 0.0001). When different numbers (10⁵, 5 × 10⁵, and 10 × 10⁵) of TA3Ha cells were injected I. V. immediately after surgery, the frequency of tumor formation showed an increase (respectively, 32%, 63%, 71%). As the interval between induction of trauma and tumor cell injection was increased from 0 to 15 days, the frequency of tumor formation declined from 32% to 0%. These results suggest that the healing wound is a privileged site for experimental metastasis, particularly in the early stages. It is likely that the proteins in the blood clotting cascade are involved in local tumor implantation.