Direct visualization of macrophage-assisted tumor cell intravasation in mammary tumors

Although the presence of macrophages in tumors has been correlated with poor prognosis, until now there was no direct observation of how macrophages are involved in hematogenous metastasis. In this study, we use multiphoton microscopy to show, for the first time, that tumor cell intravasation occurs in association with perivascular macrophages in mammary tumors. Furthermore, we show that perivascular macrophages of the mammary tumor are associated with tumor cell intravasation in the absence of local angiogenesis. These results show that the interaction between macrophages and tumor cells lying in close proximity defines a microenvironment that is directly involved in the intravasation of cancer cells in mammary tumors.