Abstract 4310: Targeting Wnt signaling pathway using curcumin in metatstatic breast cancer cell lines

Metastasis is the major reason for breast cancer-related deaths. The current treatment options for breast cancer include surgery, endocrine targeted therapy, radiation, chemotherapy and/or immunotherapy. However, even after treatment of the primary tumor at an early stage, breast cancer patients are at an increased risk of developing sudden metastases. Wnt signaling is a pivotal oncogenic pathway that contributes to human breast malignancy. High levels of Wnt ligands have been frequently detected in human breast cancers and accumulating evidence indicate a key role for the Wnt signaling pathway in the metastatic process. Curcumin, an active ingredient of turmeric has been shown to alter Wnt signaling as well as suppress metastasis in a variety of cancers. Here, we hypothesize that curcumin inhibits metastatic potential of breast cancer cell lines by targeting the Wnt signaling pathway. An initial dose dependent cytotoxic assay was performed with curcumin on two distinct breast cancer cell lines (epithelial and mesenchymal) to determine the optimum concentration for subsequent experiments. Our results indicate that curcumin imparts a dose dependent cytotoxic effect on both epithelial as well as mesenchymal breast cancer cell lines. Further, we observed that curcumin treatment alters the Wnt signaling pathway genes. Additional studies are warranted to confirm the effect of curcumin on Wnt signaling pathway and its role in combating proliferation and migration of breast cancer cells. Citation Format: Nancy Ma, Patty Havard, Vinayak Shenoy, Anitha K. Shenoy. Targeting Wnt signaling pathway using curcumin in metatstatic breast cancer cell lines [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4310.