Abstract
Young women diagnosed with breast cancer (BC) have poor prognosis due to increased rates of metastasis. In addition, women diagnosed within 10 years of most recent childbirth are approximately three times more likely to develop metastasis than age- and stage-matched nulliparous women. We define these cases as postpartum BC (PPBC) and propose that the unique biology of the postpartum mammary gland drives tumor progression. Our published results revealed roles for SEMA7A in breast tumor cell growth, motility, invasion, and tumor-associated lymphangiogenesis, all of which are also increased in preclinical models of PPBC. However, whether SEMA7A drives progression in PPBC remains largely unexplored. Our results presented herein show that silencing of SEMA7A decreases tumor growth in a model of PPBC, while overexpression is sufficient to increase growth in nulliparous hosts. Further, we show that SEMA7A promotes multiple known drivers of PPBC progression including tumor-associated COX-2 expression and fibroblast-mediated collagen deposition in the tumor microenvironment. In addition, we show for the first time that SEMA7A-expressing cells deposit fibronectin to promote tumor cell survival. Finally, we show that co-expression of SEMA7A/COX-2/FN predicts for poor prognosis in breast cancer patient cohorts. These studies suggest SEMA7A as a key mediator of BC progression, and that targeting SEMA7A may open avenues for novel therapeutic strategies.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 50 print issues and online access
£169.00 per year
only £3.38 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Callihan EB, Gao D, Jindal S, Lyons TR, Manthey E, Edgerton S, et al. Postpartum diagnosis demonstrates a high risk for metastasis and merits an expanded definition of pregnancy-associated breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2013;138:549–59.
Goddard ET, Bassale S, Schedin T, Jindal S, Johnston J, Cabral E, et al. Defining the impact of a postpartum diagnosis on metastasis and the clinical features underlying risk: a young women’s breast cancer cohort study. JAMA Network. 2018 (in press).
Nichols HB, Schoemaker MJ, Cai J, Xu J, Wright LB, Brook MN et al. Breast cancer risk after recent childbirth: a pooled analysis of 15 prospective studies. Ann Intern Med. 2019;170:22–30.
Goddard ET, Bassale S, Schedin T, Jindal S, Johnston J, Cabral E, et al. Association between postpartum breast cancer diagnosis and metastasis and the clinical features underlying risk. JAMA Netw Open. 2019;2:e186997.
Lyons TR, O’Brien J, Borges VF, Conklin MW, Keely PJ, Eliceiri KW, et al. Postpartum mammary gland involution drives progression of ductal carcinoma in situ through collagen and COX-2. Nat Med. 2011;17:1109–15.
Slepicka PF, Cyrill SL, Dos Santos CO. Pregnancy and breast cancer: pathways to understand risk and prevention. Trends Mol Med 2019;25:866–81.
Elder AM, Tamburini BAJ, Crump LS, Black SA, Wessells VM, Schedin PJ, et al. Semaphorin 7A promotes macrophage-mediated lymphatic remodeling during postpartum mammary gland involution and in breast cancer. Cancer Res. 2018;78:6473–85.
Lyons TR, Borges VF, Betts CB, Guo Q, Kapoor P, Martinson HA, et al. Cyclooxygenase-2-dependent lymphangiogenesis promotes nodal metastasis of postpartum breast cancer. J Clin Investig. 2014;124:3901–12.
Guo Q, Minnier J, Burchard J, Chiotti K, Spellman P, Schedin P. Physiologically activated mammary fibroblasts promote postpartum mammary cancer. JCI Insight. 2017;2:e89206.
Asztalos S, Gann PH, Hayes MK, Nonn L, Beam CA, Dai Y, et al. Gene expression patterns in the human breast after pregnancy. Cancer Prev Res (Philos). 2010;3:301–11.
Miller FR, Santner SJ, Tait L, Dawson PJ. MCF10DCIS.com xenograft model of human comedo ductal carcinoma in situ. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2000;92:1185–6.
Gupta PB, Proia D, Cingoz O, Weremowicz J, Naber SP, Weinberg RA, et al. Systemic stromal effects of estrogen promote the growth of estrogen receptor-negative cancers. Cancer Res. 2007;67:2062–71.
Rehman M, Tamagnone L. Semaphorins in cancer: biological mechanisms and therapeutic approaches. Semin Cell Dev Biol. 2013;24:179–89.
Kinehara Y, Nagatomo I, Koyama S, Ito D, Nojima S, Kurebayashi R, et al. Semaphorin 7A promotes EGFR-TKI resistance in EGFR mutant lung adenocarcinoma cells. JCI Insight 2018;3:pii: 123093.
Ma B, Herzog EL, Lee CG, Peng X, Lee CM, Chen X, et al. Role of chitinase 3-like-1 and semaphorin 7a in pulmonary melanoma metastasis. Cancer Res. 2015;75:487–96.
Saito T, Kasamatsu A, Ogawara K, Miyamoto I, Saito K, Iyoda M, et al. Semaphorin7A promotion of tumoral growth and metastasis in human oral cancer by regulation of g1 cell cycle and matrix metalloproteases: Possible contribution to tumoral angiogenesis. PLoS ONE. 2015;10:1–20.
Scott GA, McClelland LA, Fricke AF, Fender A, Plexin C. A receptor for semaphorin 7A, inactivates cofilin and is a potential tumor suppressor for melanoma progression. J Investig Dermatol. 2009;129:954–63.
Allegra M, Zaragkoulias A, Vorgia E, Ioannou M, Litos G, Beug H, et al. Semaphorin-7a reverses the ERF-induced inhibition of EMT in Ras-dependent mouse mammary epithelial cells. Mol Biol Cell. 2012;23:3873–81.
Black SA, Nelson AC, Gurule NJ, Futscher BW, Lyons TR. Semaphorin 7a exerts pleiotropic effects to promote breast tumor progression. Oncogene. 2016;35:5170–8.
Garcia-Areas R, Libreros S, Amat S, Keating P, Carrio R, Robinson P, et al. Semaphorin7A promotes tumor growth and exerts a pro-angiogenic effect in macrophages of mammary tumor-bearing mice. Front Physiol. 2014;5:17.
Garcia-Areas R, Libreros S, Simoes M, Castro-Silva C, Gazaniga N, Amat S, et al. Suppression of tumor-derived Semaphorin 7A and genetic ablation of host-derived Semaphorin 7A impairs tumor progression in a murine model of advanced breast carcinoma. Int J Oncol. 2017;51:1395–404.
Curtis C, Shah SP, Chin SF, Turashvili G, Rueda OM, Dunning MJ, et al. The genomic and transcriptomic architecture of 2,000 breast tumours reveals novel subgroups. Nature. 2012;486:346–52.
Jacob A, Jing J, Lee J, Schedin P, Gilbert SM, Peden AA, et al. Rab40b regulates trafficking of MMP2 and MMP9 during invadopodia formation and invasion of breast cancer cells. J Cell Sci. 2013;126:4647–58.
Maller O, Hansen KC, Lyons TR, Acerbi I, Weaver VM, Prekeris R, et al. Collagen architecture in pregnancy-induced protection from breast cancer. J Cell Sci. 2013;126:4108–10.
Kalluri R, Weinberg RA. The basics of epithelial-mesenchymal transition. J Clin Investig. 2009;119:1420–8.
Balmanno K, Cook SJ. Tumour cell survival signalling by the ERK1/2 pathway. Cell Death Differ. 2008;16:368.
Reddig PJ, Juliano RL. Clinging to life: cell to matrix adhesion and cell survival. Cancer Metastasis Rev. 2005;24:425–39.
Tiwari N, Gheldof A, Tatari M, Christofori G. EMT as the ultimate survival mechanism of cancer cells. Semin Cancer Biol. 2012;22:194–207.
St-Germain ME, Gagnon V, Parent S, Asselin E. Regulation of COX-2 protein expression by Akt in endometrial cancer cells is mediated through NF-kappaB/IkappaB pathway. Mol Cancer. 2004;3:7.
Schedin P. Pregnancy-associated breast cancer and metastasis. Nat Rev Cancer. 2006;6:281–91.
Albrektsen G, Heuch I, Hansen S, Kvale G. Breast cancer risk by age at birth, time since birth and time intervals between births: exploring interaction effects. Br J Cancer. 2005;92:167–75.
Welch DR, Hurst DR. Defining the Hallmarks of Metastasis. Cancer Res. 2019;79:3011–27.
Cerny J, Stockinger H, Horejsi V. Noncovalent associations of T lymphocyte surface proteins. Eur J Immunol. 1996;26:2335–43.
Zhou Y, Gunput RA, Pasterkamp RJ. Semaphorin signaling: progress made and promises ahead. Trends Biochem Sci. 2008;33:161–70.
Liu H, Juo ZS, Shim AH, Focia PJ, Chen X, Garcia KC, et al. Structural basis of semaphorin-plexin recognition and viral mimicry from Sema7A and A39R complexes with PlexinC1. Cell. 2010;142:749–61.
Fong KP, Barry C, Tran AN, Traxler EA, Wannemacher KM, Tang HY, et al. Deciphering the human platelet sheddome. Blood. 2011;117:15–27.
Jaimes Y, Gras C, Goudeva L, Buchholz S, Eiz-Vesper B, Seltsam A, et al. Semaphorin 7A inhibits platelet production from CD34+ progenitor cells. J Thrombosis Haemost. 2012;10:1100–8.
Xie J, Wang H. Semaphorin 7A as a potential immune regulator and promising therapeutic target in rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Res Ther. 2017;19:10.
Kopp MA, Brommer B, Gatzemeier N, Schwab JM, Pruss H. Spinal cord injury induces differential expression of the profibrotic semaphorin 7A in the developing and mature glial scar. Glia. 2010;58:1748–56.
Gan Y, Reilkoff R, Peng X, Russell T, Chen Q, Mathai SK, et al. Role of semaphorin 7a signaling in transforming growth factor beta1-induced lung fibrosis and scleroderma-related interstitial lung disease. Arthritis Rheumatism. 2011;63:2484–94.
Reilkoff RA, Peng H, Murray LA, Peng X, Russell T, Montgomery R, et al. Semaphorin 7a+ regulatory T cells are associated with progressive idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and are implicated in transforming growth factor-beta1-induced pulmonary fibrosis. Am J Respir Crit cCare Med. 2013;187:180–8.
Kang H-R, Lee CG, Homer RJ, Ja E. Semaphorin 7A plays a critical role in TGF-beta1-induced pulmonary fibrosis. J Exp Med. 2007;204:1083–93.
Gilmore AP, Owens TW, Foster FM, Lindsay J. How adhesion signals reach a mitochondrial conclusion–ECM regulation of apoptosis. Curr Opin Cell Biol. 2009;21:654–61.
Knowles LM, Gurski LA, Engel C, Gnarra JR, Maranchie JK, Pilch J. Integrin αvβ3 and fibronectin upregulate Slug in cancer cells to promote clot invasion and metastasis. Cancer Res. 2013;73:6175–84.
Lamouille S, Xu J, Derynck R. Molecular mechanisms of epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2014;15:178–96.
Chao Y, Wu Q, Acquafondata M, Dhir R, Wells A. Partial mesenchymal to epithelial reverting transition in breast and prostate cancer metastases. Cancer Microenviron. 2012;5:19–28.
Smith BN, Bhowmick NA. Role of EMT in Metastasis and Therapy Resistance. J Clin Med. 2016;5:17.
Nurwidya F, Murakami A, Takahashi F, Takahashi K. Molecular mechanisms contributing to resistance to tyrosine kinase-targeted therapy for non-small cell lung cancer. Cancer Biol Med. 2012;9:18–22.
Nurwidya F, Takahashi F, Murakami A, Takahashi K. Epithelial mesenchymal transition in drug resistance and metastasis of lung cancer. Cancer Res Treat. 2012;44:151–6.
Uchikado Y, Okumura H, Ishigami S, Setoyama T, Matsumoto M, Owaki T, et al. Increased Slug and decreased E-cadherin expression is related to poor prognosis in patients with gastric cancer. Gastric Cancer. 2011;14:41–9.
Deep G, Jain AK, Ramteke A, Ting H, Vijendra KC, Gangar SC, et al. SNAI1 is critical for the aggressiveness of prostate cancer cells with low E-cadherin. Mol Cancer. 2014;13:37.
McKeithen D, Graham T, Chung LW, Odero-Marah V. Snail transcription factor regulates neuroendocrine differentiation in LNCaP prostate cancer cells. Prostate. 2010;70:982–92.
Cheng GZ, Chan J, Wang Q, Zhang W, Sun CD, Wang LH. Twist transcriptionally up-regulates AKT2 in breast cancer cells leading to increased migration, invasion, and resistance to paclitaxel. Cancer Res. 2007;67:1979–87.
Baritaki S, Yeung K, Palladino M, Berenson J, Bonavida B. Pivotal roles of snail inhibition and RKIP induction by the proteasome inhibitor NPI-0052 in tumor cell chemoimmunosensitization. Cancer Res. 2009;69:8376–85.
Vesuna F, Lisok A, Kimble B, Domek J, Kato Y, van der Groep P, et al. Twist contributes to hormone resistance in breast cancer by downregulating estrogen receptor-alpha. Oncogene. 2012;31:3223–34.
Parkash J, Messina A, Langlet F, Cimino I, Loyens A, Mazur D, et al. Semaphorin7A regulates neuroglial plasticity in the adult hypothalamic median eminence. Nat Commun. 2015;6:6385.
Eke I, Storch K, Krause M, Cordes N. Cetuximab attenuates its cytotoxic and radiosensitizing potential by inducing fibronectin biosynthesis. Cancer Res. 2013;73:5869–79.
Pontiggia O, Sampayo R, Raffo D, Motter A, Xu R, Bissell MJ, et al. The tumor microenvironment modulates tamoxifen resistance in breast cancer: a role for soluble stromal factors and fibronectin through beta1 integrin. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2012;133:459–71.
Han SW, Roman J. Fibronectin induces cell proliferation and inhibits apoptosis in human bronchial epithelial cells: pro-oncogenic effects mediated by PI3-kinase and NF-kappa B. Oncogene. 2006;25:4341–9.
Hattar R, Maller O, McDaniel S, Hansen KC, Hedman KJ, Lyons TR et al. Tamoxifen induces pleiotrophic changes in mammary stroma resulting in extracellular matrix that suppresses transformed phenotypes. Breast Cancer Res. 2009;11:R5.
Cheng JQ, Jiang X, Fraser M, Li M, Dan HC, Sun M, et al. Role of X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein in chemoresistance in ovarian cancer: possible involvement of the phosphoinositide-3 kinase/Akt pathway. Drug Resist Updat. 2002;5:131–46.
Fraser M, Leung BM, Yan X, Dan HC, Cheng JQ, Tsang BK. p53 is a determinant of X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein/Akt-mediated chemoresistance in human ovarian cancer cells. Cancer Res. 2003;63:7081–8.
Knuefermann C, Lu Y, Liu B, Jin W, Liang K, Wu L, et al. HER2/PI-3K/Akt activation leads to a multidrug resistance in human breast adenocarcinoma cells. Oncogene. 2003;22:3205–12.
Li J, Feng Q, Kim JM, Schneiderman D, Liston P, Li M, et al. Human ovarian cancer and cisplatin resistance: possible role of inhibitor of apoptosis proteins. Endocrinology. 2001;142:370–80.
Gurrapu S, Pupo E, Franzolin G, Lanzetti L, Tamagnone L. Sema4C/PlexinB2 signaling controls breast cancer cell growth, hormonal dependence and tumorigenic potential. Cell Death Differ. 2018;25:1259–75.
Crump LS, Wyatt G, Porter WW, Richer J, Lyons TR. Hormonal regulation of Semaphorin 7a in ER+ breast cancer drives therapeutic resistance. bioRxiv 2019: 650135.
Provenzano PP, Eliceiri KW, Campbell JM, Inman DR, White JG, Keely PJ. Collagen reorganization at the tumor-stromal interface facilitates local invasion. BMC Med. 2006;4:38.
Provenzano PP, Inman DR, Eliceiri KW, Knittel JG, Yan L, Rueden CT, et al. Collagen density promotes mammary tumor initiation and progression. BMC Med. 2008;6:11.
Slocum E, Craig A, Villanueva A, Germain D. Parity predisposes breasts to the oncogenic action of PAPP-A and activation of the collagen receptor DDR2. Breast Cancer Res. 2019;21:56.
Ristimäki A, Sivula A, Lundin J, Ristima A, Lundin M, Salminen T et al. Prognostic significance of elevated cyclooxygenase-2 expression in breast cancer. Cancer Res. 2002;62:632–5.
Denkert C, Winzer K-J, Müller B-M, Weichert W, Pest S, Köbel M, et al. Elevated expression of cyclooxygenase-2 is a negative prognostic factor for disease free survival and overall survival in patients with breast carcinoma. Cancer. 2003;97:2978–87.
Pasterkamp RJ, Peschon JJ, Spriggs MK, Kolodkin AL. Semaphorin 7A promotes axon outgrowth through integrins and MAPKs. Nature. 2003;424:398–405.
Hu M, Peluffo G, Chen H, Gelman R, Schnitt S, Polyak K. Role of COX-2 in epithelial-stromal cell interactions and progression of ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2009;106:3372–7.
Valdez KE, Fan F, Smith W, Allred DC, Medina D, Behbod F. Human primary ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) subtype-specific pathology is preserved in a mouse intraductal (MIND) xenograft model. J Pathol. 2011;225:565–73.
Nagy A, Lanczky A, Menyhart O, Gyorffy B. Author correction: Validation of miRNA prognostic power in hepatocellular carcinoma using expression data of independent datasets. Sci Rep. 2018;8:11515.
Dean JL, McClendon AK, Hickey TE, Butler LM, Tilley WD, Witkiewicz AK, et al. Therapeutic response to CDK4/6 inhibition in breast cancer defined by ex vivo analyses of human tumors. Cell Cycle. 2012;11:2756–61.
Barrett AS, Wither MJ, Hill RC, Dzieciatkowska M, D’Alessandro A, Reisz JA, et al. Hydroxylamine chemical digestion for insoluble extracellular matrix characterization. J Proteome Res. 2017;16:4177–84.
Reisz JA, Nemkov T, Dzieciatkowska M, Culp-Hill R, Stefanoni D, Hill RC, et al. Methylation of protein aspartates and deamidated asparagines as a function of blood bank storage and oxidative stress in human red blood cells. Transfusion. 2018;58:2978–91.
Chong J, Xia J. MetaboAnalystR: an R package for flexible and reproducible analysis of metabolomics data. Bioinformatics. 2018;34:4313–4.
Mi H, Muruganujan A, Ebert D, Huang X, Thomas PD. PANTHER version 14: more genomes, a new PANTHER GO-slim and improvements in enrichment analysis tools. Nucleic Acids Res. 2019;47:D419–26.
Acknowledgements
MCF10DCIS cells were obtained from K. Polyak and A. Marusyk (Harvard University, Cambridge, MA). MDA-MB-231 cells were obtained from P. Schedin (Oregon Heath and Sciences University, Portland OR). HLF-1 cells were gifted from M. Fini (CU Anschutz Medical Campus, Denver, CO). We thank H. Ford for the pcDNA3.1 vector (CU Anschutz Medical Campus, Denver, CO) and R. Medzhitov (Yale University, New Haven, CT) for the SEMA7A-Fc overexpression vector. We also acknowledge V. Wessells, A. Elder, L. Crump, T. Wallace, C. Young, A. Stoller, M. Kobritz, and C. Hoang for technical support and advice. This work was supported by the American Cancer Society (RSG 16-171-01-CSM) and NIH/NCI (R01CA211696-01A1) to TRL and NIH/CCTSI/CTSA (TL1 TR001081) to SET.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
SET and TRL conceived and designed the study. SET performed all in vitro and in vivo studies. VFB and FB were responsible for regulatory oversight of human tissue acquisition and providing cases for IHC analysis. RCH and KH were responsible for all mass spectrometry experiments and associated data analysis. ACN was responsible for analyzing and scoring all tumor for invasion. SET and TRL were responsible for hypothesis development, conceptual design, data analysis, and data interpretation. SET and TRL wrote the manuscript with all authors providing critical evaluation.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary information
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tarullo, S.E., Hill, R.C., Hansen, K.C. et al. Postpartum breast cancer progression is driven by semaphorin 7a-mediated invasion and survival. Oncogene 39, 2772–2785 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41388-020-1192-9
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41388-020-1192-9