Neoplastic extracellular matrix environment promotes cancer invasion in vitro

• Carcinoma cells do not invade into non-neoplastic tissue.
• Heart contains soluble factors that inhibit carcinoma cell migration and invasion.
• Myomas can be lyophilized and rehydrated without loss of invasion promotion.
• The use of myoma tissue in in vitro cancer studies is highly rational.

The invasion of carcinoma cells is a crucial feature in carcinogenesis. The penetration efficiency not only depends on the cancer cells, but also on the composition of the tumor microenvironment. Our group has developed a 3D invasion assay based on human uterine leiomyoma tissue. Here we tested whether human, porcine, mouse or rat hearts as well as porcine tongue t