Wounding promotes ovarian cancer progression and decreases efficacy of cisplatin in a syngeneic mouse model

Abstract

Background

Primary cytoreductive surgery followed by adjuvant chemotherapy is the standard treatment for advanced epithelial ovarian cancer. The average interval between surgery and chemotherapy initiation is approximately 4-weeks at most centers; however, since surgery may accelerate residual tumor growth, a shorter interval may be more beneficial.

Methods

The murine ID8 cell model of ovarian cancer was used to examine the efficacy of cisplatin treatment administered perioperatively or 7 days after surgical wounding. Luciferase-expressing cells ID8 cells were injected intraperitoneally (i.p.) into female C57/Bl6 mice. Fourteen days post-injection, animals received an abdominal incision or anesthesia alone and received i.p. cisplatin either on the surgical day or 7 days later, or received no chemotherapy. Additional animals received cisplatin 28 days after wounding for comparison.

Results

Abdominal tumor mass increased 2.5-fold in wounded vs. unwounded animals as determined by bioluminescent in vivo tumor imaging. Cisplatin administered on the day of wounding decreased tumor burden by 50%, as compared to 90% in unwounded animals. Cisplatin on day 7 or day 28 decreased tumor burden by 80 and 37% respectively.

Conclusions

Surgical wounding increases ovarian tumor mass and decreases perioperative cisplatin efficacy in this animal model. Administration of cisplatin 1 week after surgery was more effective than cisplatin administered perioperatively or 4 weeks after surgery.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s13048-018-0428-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.