The purpose of the study was to compare the effects of dietary linoleic acid (LA) intake on the growth and metastasis of MDA-MB-435 and MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells in nude mice, together with their invasive capacity and secretion of type IV collagenase (gelatinase) in vitro. Each tumor cell line (10(6) cells) was injected into a right-sided mammary fat pad in 60 mice with equal numbers (30 mice/group) assigned to isocaloric diets containing 23% (w/w) total fat and 2% or 12% (w/w) LA. The MDA-MB-435-cell mammary fat pad tumors became palpable earlier and initially they grew more rapidly, but by 6 weeks the MDA-MB-231-cell tumors exhibited an acceleration of growth which was enhanced by the high-LA diet. At necropsy, 12 weeks after the tumor cell injections, the mean weight [10.2 +/- 1.4 g(SEM)] of mammary fat pad MDA-MB-231 cell tumors in 12% LA-fed mice was significantly higher (6.7 +/- 1.4 g) than that of the mice fed 2% LA; also, it was higher than that of MDA-MB-435 cell tumors in the 12% LA-fed mice (3.6 +/- 0.1 g) or the 2% LA-fed mice (3.3 +/- 0.1 g) (each P < 0.001). Mice fed the 12% LA diet had a higher incidence of grossly visible MDA-MB-435 cell pulmonary metastatic nodules than those fed the 2% LA diet (67% versus 33%; P < 0.02), more metastatic lesions (5.7 +/- 1.6 versus 2.3 +/- 0.8; P < 0.05), and greater total volumes (62.0 +/- 25.9 versus 24.8 +/- 9.0 mm3; P < 0.02) per mouse. Of the MDA-MB-231 cell tumor-bearing mice, only 1 in the 12% LA dietary group and 2 in the 2% LA dietary group had macroscopic nodules but the incidence of microscopic metastases was 68 and 42%, respectively. The MDA-MB-231 cell line exhibited a relatively high capacity for invasion in vitro and constitutively high levels of both total type IV collagenolytic activity and M(r) 92,000 gelatinase production which were unaffected by LA. In contrast, MDA-MB-435 cells had approximately only one-sixth the invasive capacity and secreted a relatively low level of type IV collagenase and little of the M(r) 92,000 gelatinase; both invasion and enzyme production were stimulated by LA.