Mast Cell, the Neglected Member of the Tumor Microenvironment: Role in Breast Cancer

Table 1

Studies analyzing the participation of mast cells in breast cancer.

Study type	BC specimen	MC detection method	Prognosis in BC	Association	Ref.
D/C/E	Tumor tissue and blood xenotransplanted mice	Tryptase	Positive	Decreased blood clotting and hypoxia	[94]
D/C	Tumor tissue	c-kit (CD117)	Positive	Greater survival	[95]
D/C	Tumor tissue from IDC	c-kit (CD117)	Positive	Greater survival	[87]
D/C	Tumor tissue	Giemsa and Alcian blue	Positive	BC subtype	[88]
D/C	Lymph nodes	Toluidine blue	Positive	Greater survival	[91]
D/C	Tumor tissue from IDC	Tryptase and chymase	Positive	BC subtypes	[89]
D/C	Sentinel lymph nodes	Tryptase	Negative	Angiogenesis and micrometastasis	[90]
D/C	Tumor tissue	Tryptase	Negative	Angiogenesis	[92]
D/C	Tumor tissue and sera to measure tryptase levels	Tryptase	Negative	Angiogenesis	[93]
D/C	Tumor tissue and lymph nodes from IDC patients	Toluidine blue	Negative	Angiogenesis	[98]
D/C	Tumor tissue from IDC	Toluidine blue	Negative	BC grade	[99]
D/C/E	Benign growths and tumor tissues; Cell line treated with tryptase	Tryptase	Negative	BC grade and metastasis	[104]
E	Mast cell-deficient BC-prone mice	Toluidine blue	Negative	Progression, metastasis, and angiogenesis	[105]
C/E	Tumor tissue from cimetidine treated patients	Toluidine blue	None	None	[111]

BC: breast cancer; IDC: invasive ductal carcinoma; D: descriptive study; C: correlative; E: experimentally tested; positive: antitumoral role; negative: protumoral role. Studies also performed in mice.