Högskolan i Skövde

Cancer is a well-known disease that many people encounter in their lifetime. There is constantly research being performed on cancer to find treatments for those types where none has been found, or even find better or more efficient treatments for those cancer types where there already is treatment available. Two types of cancer that have been studied in this thesis are neuroblastoma, which is a form of cancer that affects children and infants, and breast cancer. The 13-cis retinoic acid is presently used as treatment for neuroblastoma post-surgery and post-chemo therapy, but the treatment is quite invasive. It has been shown that 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D₃ is a good candidate for cancer treatment, and the aim of this study was to investigate whether a combination of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D₃ and two forms of retinoic acid, all-trans and 13-cis, could cause synergistic effects on cell viability, invasion, and differentiation of the cells. The two vitamins were combined at different concentrations and ratios to make the different treatments. A proliferation assay with absorbance measurement was performed to determine cell viability, and a migration assay was performed to observe the migratory properties of the cells after treatment. The results concluded that the combined treatments had greater effect than the single treatments on cell viability in both neuroblastoma and breast cancer cells. The results showed that single treatment of 13-cis retinoic acid and combined treatments had the highest effect on invasion and differentiation on neuroblastoma cells.