Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of death among women and the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) has been associated with breast tumor growth and metastasis. Inhibition of the RAS limits such effects and several efforts have been made to develop new inexpensive strategies for breast cancer treatment. We herein provide additional evidence that breast cancer chemotherapy can be influenced by losartan and PD123319, antagonists of angiotensin receptors AT1 and AT2, respectively. Perhaps the most important result was that this occurred without interfering with the expression or activity of the multidrug resistance-associated protein, ABCC1, which is associated with defensive cellular mechanisms. Moreover, they increased intracellular doxorubicin accumulation, which could increase cytotoxicity.
Keywords: Doxorubicin; MCF-7; aldosterone; angiotensin II; breast cancer; vasopressin.