A study of tumor-stroma interactions in metastatic breast cancer

Breast cancer is the most frequent type of cancer in women. While patients diagnosed with localized breast cancer have a promising survival rate, the presence of distant metastases is associated with a poor prognosis. YAP and TAZ are transcriptional co-factors involved in several physiological processes; however, their abnormal activity in cancer has been associated with high histological grade, invasiveness, chemoresistance and metastatic dissemination. In particular, their expression is essential in tumor initiation in both primary and secondary sites. Here we focused on a less understood aspect of YAP/TAZ biology, that is how these factors affect the tumor microenvironment. Specifically, we have investigated the signals that are exchanged between tumor cells and stromal cells. In this thesis work, we functionally validate the role of some signaling molecules, secreted by tumor cells, in metastatic growth, by performing CRISPR/Cas9 mediated gene knockout with an in vivo read-out.