A mouse tumor model of surgical stress is used to explore how postoperative immune suppression promotes metastatic disease and to evaluate immunostimulatory perioperative therapies.
Surgical resection is an essential treatment for most cancer patients, but surgery induces dysfunction in the immune system and this has been linked to the development of metastatic disease in animal models and in cancer patients. Preclinical work from our group and others has demonstrated a profound suppression of innate immune function, specifically NK cells in the postoperative period and this plays a major role in the enhanced development of metastases following surgery. Relatively few animal studies and clinical trials have focused on characterizing and reversing the detrimental effects of cancer surgery. Using a rigorous animal model of spontaneously metastasizing tumors and surgical stress, the enhancement of cancer surgery on the development of lung metastases was demonstrated. In this model, 4T1 breast cancer cells are implanted in the mouse mammary fat pad. At day 14 post tumor implantation, a complete resection of the primary mammary tumor is performed in all animals. A subset of animals receives additional surgical stress in the form of an abdominal nephrectomy. At day 28, lung tumor nodules are quantified. When immunotherapy was given immediately preoperatively, a profound activation of immune cells which prevented the development of metastases following surgery was detected. While the 4T1 breast tumor surgery model allows for the simulation of the effects of abdominal surgical stress on tumor metastases, its applicability to other tumor types needs to be tested. The current challenge is to identify safe and promising immunotherapies in preclinical mouse models and to translate them into viable perioperative therapies to be given to cancer surgery patients to prevent the recurrence of metastatic disease.
Surgery is a critical component in the curative cancer treatment of solid tumors, but despite complete resection, many patients develop a metastatic recurrence and ultimately die of their disease. Increasingly, the postoperative period, as a result of the physiologic stress response to surgery, including blood coagulation, release of growth factors, and immune suppression, is recognized as critical time for the development of metastases. Our group1,2 and others3-5 have shown that the immediate postoperative period is a uniquely susceptible time for the formation of metastases.
One of the key mechanisms responsible for the prometastatic effects of surgery is postoperative dysfunction of Natural Killer (NK) cells1-3. NK cells are cytotoxic lymphocytes of the innate immune system involved in the control of tumor growth and metastases6. NK cell dysfunction following surgery has been documented in both human patients1,7-9 and animal models1,10,11. Postoperative NK cell suppression correlates with increased metastases in animal models of spontaneous and implanted metastases1,11-14, while in human studies, low NK activity during the perioperative period is associated with a higher rate of cancer recurrence and mortality15,16.
Despite this, there are currently no cancer therapies specifically addressing the prometastatic changes that occur immediately following cancer surgery. The perioperative period represents a therapeutic window of opportunity in which to intervene in the metastatic process. While traditional cancer therapies, such as cytotoxic chemotherapy, are considered too toxic to be administered to patients recovering from major surgery17, immune therapies are ideal candidates for perioperative administration. Perioperative use of recombinant IL-2 and IFN-γ have been explored in early phase clinical trials demonstrating their potential to prevent postoperative NK cell suppression and improve progression-free survival18-21. Unfortunately, further development has been hindered by tolerability of this nonspecific cytokine therapy combined with major surgery17. Viruses are also potent nonspecific activators of NK cells. Our research has previously demonstrated that preoperative administration of replicating viruses, such as novel anti-cancer Oncolytic Viruses (OV), and nonreplicating viral vaccines, such as influenza vaccine, can inhibit surgery-induced NK cell dysfunction and attenuate metastatic disease1,22.
The surgical model described in this paper has facilitated our understanding of the mechanisms involved in the spread and growth of tumor cells after surgery and allowed us to explore novel targeted therapies that can be administered in the perioperative period. To accomplish this goal, an animal model of surgical stress and spontaneous metastasis wad developed. The model makes use of mouse breast carcinoma tumors (BALB/c – 4T1) that are able to spontaneously metastasize from the primary mammary gland to multiple distant sites in particular the lungs. At day 0, breast cancer cells are implanted in the mouse breast fat pad. At day 14 post tumor implantation, a complete resection of the primary mammary tumor is performed in all animals. A subset of animals receives additional surgical stress in the form of an abdominal nephrectomy. At day 28, lung tumor nodules in surgically stressed and no surgery control mice compared are isolated and quantified. In this animal model of cancer and surgery, the effects of surgery on cancer metastases are being studied and the efficacy of perioperative administration of innovative immunotherapies, including replicating and nonreplicating virally based immune- stimulants are tested for the first time.
1. Maintaining 4T1 Tumor Cells in vitro
2. Harvesting 4T1 Tumor Cells for Injection
3. Injecting Mice with 4T1 Tumor Cells
All animal studies performed were in accordance with institutional guidelines at the Animal Care Veterinary Services of the University of Ottawa recommendations for all animals receiving orthotopic injections or tumor implants.
4. Administering Perioperative Treatment in 4T1 Tumor Bearing BALB/c Mice
The treatment regimen and route for influenza vaccine administration is identical to the oncolytic virus preoperative treatment.
5. Complete Resection of Primary Tumor and Abdominal Left Nephrectomy
6. Euthanizing Mice and Processing and Quantification of Lung Tumor Burden
A reproducible mouse model of surgical stress that results in the dramatic enhancement of pulmonary metastases has been developed. At day 28 post 4T1 tumor inoculation (and 14 days post tumor resection +/- abdominal nephrectomy), lungs were harvested and visualized for metastases. Surgery clearly increases the amount of pulmonary metastases compared to untreated mice as demonstrated by lung photographs (Figure 1A), enumeration of lung nodules (Figure 1B) and lung weight (Figure 1C). Preoperative administration of replicating oncolytic virus and inactivated influenza vaccine significantly rescues the prometastatic effects of cancer surgery (Figures 1A-C).
To determine whether NK cells play a mediating role in preventing metastases post-vaccine treatment, NK cells were pharmacologically depleted using anti-asialo-GM-1 in the tumor metastasis model. In the absence of NK cells, we observed an abrogation of the therapeutic effect of perioperative immunotherapies (Figures 2A and 2B). This data suggests that tumor metastases removal in our surgical stress model is mainly mediated through oncolytic virus and influenza vaccine activation of NK cells and subsequent NK mediated tumor lysis. To further characterize NK cell function following perioperative administration of oncolytic virus and influenza vaccine, ex vivo NK cell killing was assessed. Briefly, pooled and sorted DX5+ NK cells were isolated from splenocytes of surgically stressed and control mice. They were cocultured for 4 hr with chromium labeled YAC-1 target cells, at different Effector to Target ratios, followed by measurement of supernatant chromium release with a gamma counter. A significant surgery induced defect in NK cell cytotoxicity along with a significant recovery of NK killing following perioperative administration of oncolytic virus and influenza vaccine compared to surgery alone (Figures 2C and 2D) was observed. Taken together, these results demonstrate that perioperative NK cell suppression can be successfully treated and metastatic disease reduced with novel immunostimulatory therapies.
Figure 1. Novel anti-cancer oncolytic virus and influenza vaccine as perioperative therapy against surgery-induced enhancement of lung metastases. Assessment of 4T1 lung tumor metastases at day 28 of indicated treatment groups by (A) photographs of representative lungs, (B) enumeration of lung tumor nodules and (C) lung weights. Data are representative of 3 similar experiments with n=5-10/group (*, p =0.01;**, p <0.0001; n.s., not significant). Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
Figure 2. Surgical stress increases lung tumor metastases by impairing NK cells. (A,B) Quantification of lung tumor metastases in surgically stressed mice treated with novel perioperative therapy. (C,D) The ability of purified DX5+ NK cells from surgically stressed and untreated controls to kill tumor cells. The data are displayed as the mean percent (+/- SD) of chromium release from triplicate wells for the indicated E:T ratios. Data are representative of 3 similar experiments where n=4-5/group (*, p =0.01;**, p <0.005; n.s., not significant). Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
Surgical resection is the mainstay of therapy for patients with localized solid malignancies. Even with complete resection, many patients develop a metastatic recurrence and ultimately die of their disease. The immediate postoperative period provides an ideal environment for the formation of cancer metastases, modulated, in large part, by postoperative NK cell suppression. Despite this, it remains a therapeutic window that is largely ignored. There are currently no standard perioperative anti-cancer therapies aimed at preventing postoperative metastases. The current challenge is to identify safe and promising therapies that will activate NK cells in the perioperative period thereby preventing the establishment of micrometastatic disease. These therapies must be rigorously characterized for safety and efficacy in preclinical animal models and then translated into thoughtfully designed clinical trials.
The primary rationale of developing a mouse tumor model of surgical stress is to explore mechanisms of immune suppression and metastatic spread following surgery and to evaluate innovative immunotherapies with potential for future use in cancer patients undergoing surgery to remove the primary tumor. To accomplish this goal, a 4T1 murine mammary carcinoma model coupled with surgical stress was developed. While the 4T1 cell line is a murine "mammary carcinoma", the reason to use this cell line is the reproducibility of spontaneous metastases that allows us to evaluate the effects of surgical stress in a realistic cancer model. In this context, the actual origin of the malignancy is less important than the metastatic potential and tumor biology. The second crucial component of our model is the development of an animal surgical procedure to closely resemble human cancer surgery. In this animal surgical stress model, the primary 4T1 breast tumor is excised after it reaches 1 cm3. Because cancer surgeries in human patients involve significant immune suppression, an open-abdomen nephrectomy in "surgical stress" treatment groups is additionally performed. As it compares with more conventional tumor resection in humans, the invasive nature of a full left nephrectomy is very comparable to numerous types of surgical treatments for solid malignancies, including surgery for colorectal cancer, ovarian cancer, kidney cancer, pancreatic cancer, lung and esophageal cancer. In addition, we would argue that the profound physiological changes that occur perioperatively, due to laparotomy+nephrectomy, adequately reproduces the overwhelming physiological changes that occur following invasive surgery for most solid malignancies. To control for perioperative factors that could lead to excessive surgical stress and mortality, the duration of anesthesia and surgery and maintain body temperature during the surgery is precisely defined. All these parameters are precisely executed and defined in our surgery protocol to mirror routine perioperative care in human cancer patients.
The timing of the perioperative treatments is an additional critical component to the perioperative rescue model. 4T1 tumor bearing mice have been previously treated with 3 regimens of influenza vaccine: neoadjuvant (given 5 days prior to surgery), perioperative (given on the same day of surgery) and perioperative + multidose (given on the day of surgery, followed by 2 additional doses given 5 days apart). Remarkably, all 3 modes of vaccine treatment significantly decreased lung metastases22. However, influenza vaccine administered perioperatively as a single dose reduced metastases most effectively. Collectively, these experiments highlight the importance of the immediate perioperative period as a narrow therapeutic window to intervene in the metastatic process.
Perioperative use of innovative immunotherapies such as oncolytic virus and vaccines has exclusively been limited to our research group. We demonstrated for the first time that perioperative administration of novel oncolytic ORF and vaccinia viruses can reverse NK cell suppression following surgery in animal models1. More importantly, this rescue of immune function correlates with a reduction in the postoperative formation of metastases. In human studies, postoperative cancer surgery patients had reduced NK cell cytotoxicity and perioperative OV markedly increases NK cell activity in cancer patients1. Using commercially available prophylactic vaccines, we demonstrated that perioperative influenza vaccine administration significantly reduced tumor metastases and improved NK cell cytotoxicity in preclinical tumor models. In human studies, influenza vaccine significantly enhanced NK cell activity in healthy human donors and cancer surgery patients22.
Many approaches are used to reduce cancer recurrence, including chemotherapy, and radiation, but these therapies are usually administered weeks to months before (neoadjuvant) or after (adjuvant) surgery. Research in this field shows that the immediate postoperative period is critical in determining long-term tumor recurrence rates. Therefore, clinical interventions in the form of immunotherapies during this critical period may have substantial long-term benefits. Our studies using a mouse model of spontaneous lung metastasis and surgical stress provide a unique opportunity to explore novel therapies and determine their potential to prevent perioperative immunosuppression in cancer surgery patients and thereby also reduce cancer recurrence rates.
The authors have nothing to disclose.
The authors wish you to thank Kim Yates, Eileen Franklin, and Rebecca Tjepkema (Animal Care and Veterinary Services, University of Ottawa) for assistance with animal surgeries. Lee-Hwa Tai is supported by a Fonds de recherche santé Quebec Fellowship. This work was supported by operating grants from the Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute Innovation Grant, Ontario Ministry of Research and Development Early Researcher Award, and Canadian Foundation for Innovation – Leader’s Opportunity Grant to Rebecca Auer.
Dulbecco's Modified Eagle Medium (DMEM) | Corning Cell-Gro | 10-013-CV | |
Inactivated Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS) | HyClone | SH30396.03 | |
Penicillin/Streptomycin | Gibco | 15070-063 | |
1X sterile Phosphate Buffered Saline (PBS) | Corning cell gro | 21-031-CV | |
Buprenorphine | Chiron, Guelph | RXN309968 | |
Isofluorane | Baxter Corp | 1001936040 | |
1/2 ultra-fine syringe | Terumo | 30 Gauge, SS05M3009 | |
9mm staples | Braintree | ACS BX | |
5-0 braided absorbable suture | Covidien | UL-202 | |
3-0 wax braided silk suture | Covidien | S-194 | |
Formalin | Fisher | SF100-20 | |
4T1 tumor cells | ATCC | CRL-2539 | |
BALB/c | Charles Rivers Labs | Strain Code:028 |