Mechanical stretch of cancer cells can alter their invasiveness. During mechanical ventilation, lungs may be exposed to an increased amount of stretch, but the consequences on lung tumors have not been explored.

To characterize the influence of mechanical ventilation on the behavior of lung tumors, invasiveness assays and transcriptomic analyses were performed in cancer cell lines cultured in static conditions or under cyclic stretch.

Mice harbouring lung melanoma implants were submitted to mechanical ventilation and metastatic spread was assessed.

Additional in vivo experiments were performed to determine the mechano-dependent specificity of the response.

Incidence of metastases was studied in a cohort of lung cancer patients that received mechanical ventilation compared with a matched group of non-ventilated patients.

Stretch increases invasiveness in melanoma B16F10luc2 and lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells.

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