Pulmonary vascular disease & thromboembolism
Breast Cancer Reveals Latent BMPR2 -Related Susceptibility to Pulmonary Hypertension
An erratum to this article was published (Circulation, 26 May 2026 ↗)
Authors' conclusion
These findings identify a reciprocal association between breast cancer and PAH mediated by defective BMPR2 signaling and tumor-associated inflammation.
Study context
- Population
- Female Bmpr2+/Δ71 rats, pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells, public cancer datasets and patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in the French National Healthcare Databasepatients with PAH
- Participants
- 9,964 rats
- Outcome
- BMPR2 alterations in breast tumors, mammary tumors and PH in Bmpr2+/Δ71 rats, IL-1β-driven PASMC proliferation, and breast cancer–PAH association
Methodological detailsbioinformatic, epidemiologic and experimental approaches
- Bioinformatic, epidemiologic and experimental approaches
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
- BMPR2 expression markedly reduced in human breast tumors, with recurrent somatic variants and deep deletions
- Bmpr2+/Δ71 rats: spontaneous mammary tumors; after DMBA (carcinogen) exposure, exacerbated PH with increased vascular remodeling and inflammation
- Tumor-bearing Bmpr2+/Δ71 rats: elevated lung IL-1β and NF-κB activation
- Conditioned media from Bmpr2+/Δ71 tumors induced Bmpr2+/Δ71 PASMC proliferation via IL-1β-dependent signaling; IL-1β neutralization attenuated it
- Human PASMCs with BMPR2 mutations: heightened IL-1β-induced proliferation
- Breast cancer incidence more than doubled in PAH vs general population
- PAH incidence increased nearly 9-fold among patients with breast cancer (bidirectional relationship)
Original publication
Breast Cancer Reveals Latent BMPR2 -Related Susceptibility to Pulmonary Hypertension. Circulation. Published 28 January 2026. doi:10.
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it