Fig. 6

Caloric restriction combined with chemotherapy retards tumor growth and suppresses metastatic potential in a triple-negative breast cancer mouse model. a Graph demonstrating average animal weight per treatment group in four timepoints during experiment. No significant changes were observed in either treatment group. Data are presented as mean ± SD. ns: non-significant. b Tumor-bearing mice were untreated (CTRL) or treated with caloric restriction 30% (CR), doxorubicin 5 mg/kg weekly (DXR) or combination (CR + DXR). Tumor growth curves for each condition are shown. Data are presented as mean ± SD. *P ≤ 0.05. c Upper panel: Representative high-power field (HPF, magnification 400x) micrograph of hematoxylin & eosin (H&E) staining tissue. Arrows indicate mitotic cells in the untreated CTRL and combined CT + DXR group. Scale bar, 20 μm. Bottom panel: quantification of the number of mitotic cells per 10 HPF in H&E sections of the primary tumor in all four subgroups. Data are presented as mean + SD. *P ≤ 0.05; #statistical trend. d Representative microscopy H&E staining images from liver and lung in all four subgroups. Black stars denote metastatic foci enclosed with dashed lines. N: normal parenchyma. Scale bar, 100 μm. Bottom panel: quantification of the total number of metastatic lesions in liver and lung with max. diameter > 150 μm examined in hematoxylin & eosin (H&E) sections among the four subgroups. Combination treatment reduces metastatic tumor burden in 4T1 syngeneic model. Data are presented as mean ± SD. #statistical trend