Insulin stimulates the proliferation of some human breast cancer cell lines in vitro by mechanisms that use both the phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase and the mitogen-activated protein kinase/Akt signaling pathways. It is also a cell survival (anti-apoptotic) agent and enhances tumor cell migration and invasive capacity.
There have been several investigations directed at understanding the influence of insulin on the PI3K and MAPK signaling pathways and mitosis in breast cancer cell lines in vitro.
I have attached a few references below for more information.
Article Insulin receptor expression and function in human breast can...
Article Correlation Among Insulin Binding, Degradation, and Biologic...
Article Effect of insulin on cell cycle progression in MCF-7 breast ...
Article Sepp-Lorenzino L, Rosen N, Lebwohl DEInsulin and insulin-lik...
Article Insulin-stimulated cell growth in insulin receptor substrate...
Article Overexpression of membrane glycoprotein PC-1 in MDA-MB231 br...
So, insulin is an important constituent of growth media to maintain BT549 cell line in culture. I wonder whether anyone maintains BT549 cell line without insulin.