MCF-7 breast cancer cell line grown in agarose culture for study of COX-2 inhibitors in three-dimensional growth system

Herein we report a method for studying slow acting pharmaceutical COX-2 inhibitors in the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line where cells are grown in a three-dimensional format within an agarose matrix. The cancer cells are suspended in agarose and plated in a cell culture dish, where they will form small multicellular ‘tumors’ in the agarose. The time frame for conducting experiments is up to 2.5 weeks, and gives ample time for COX-2 inhibitors to induce cell death. Etodolac was used for these experiments, and was found to induce cell death in a time dependent manner over a 2.5-week period. This is in contrast to the cell line grown in monolayer and treated with the same concentrations of etodolac. This method is appropriate for determining mechanisms of cell death caused by COX-2 inhibition.