Breast cancer, a leading cause of mortality among women globally, often poses challenges due to its high metastatic potential. While surgery remains the primary treatment, strategies to prevent metastasis and enhance patient prognosis are lacking. Propofol, a widely used intravenous anesthetic, has shown promising post-surgery survival outcomes for breast cancer patients, yet its underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. Herein, we evaluated the impact of propofol on triple negative breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231 and 4T1). Notably, propofol significantly reduced the viability of these cancer cells while demonstrating minimal cytotoxicity to HUVECs. Additionally, propofol effectively inhibited the migration and invasion abilities of MDA-MB-231 and 4T1 cells. Furthermore, it induced apoptosis by modulating Bax, cleaved caspase 3, and Bcl-xl expression and arrested cell cycle progression via cyclin E2 and phosphorylated CDC6 downregulation. Our study sheds light on the potential of propofol as an old medicine with a new use for breast cancer treatment.
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