Abstract
The tumor microenvironment (TME) may influence both cancer progression and therapeutic response. In breast cancer, particularly in the aggressive triple-negative/basal-like subgroup, patient outcome is strongly associated with the tumor's inflammatory profile. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are among the most abundant immune cells in the TME, shown to be linked to poor prognosis and therapeutic resistance. In this study, we investigated the effect of the metastasis- and inflammation-associated microenvironmental factor S100A4 on breast cancer cells (BCCs) of different subtypes and explored their further interactions with myeloid cells. We demonstrated that extracellular S100A4 activates BCCs, particularly the basal-like subtype, to elevate secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines. The secreted factors promoted conversion of monocytes to TAM-like cells that exhibited protumorigenic activities: stimulated epithelial-mesenchymal transition, proliferation, chemoresistance, and motility in cancer cells. In conclusion, we have shown that extracellular S100A4 instigates a tumor-supportive microenvironment, involving a network of cytokines and TAM-like cells, which was particularly characteristic for basal-like BCCs and potentiated their aggressive properties. The S100A4-BCC-TAM interaction cascade could be an important contributor to the aggressive behavior of this subtype and should be further explored for therapeutic targeting.