Breast cancer trigger discovered
 

Breast cancer trigger discovered

By Leigh Dayton
March 13, 2008 01:28am
Article from: The Australian</IMG>
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<!-- END Story Toolbar --><!-- Lead Content Panel -->BY knocking out a single gene, US researchers have stopped a swag of other genes from causing breast cancer cells to spread.

The discovery, reported in the journal Nature overnight, points to new treatments targeting the powerful master control gene, known as SATB1.
"SATB1 is a key player in the metastasis (spread) of breast cancer cells, controlling expression of over a thousand genes," said team leader Terumi Kohwi-Shigematsu, of the University of California's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
With colleagues at UC and Philadelphia's Fox Chase Cancer Centre, Dr Kohwi-Shigematsu examined 2000 human primary breast cancer tissue samples and conducted a series of laboratory and animal experiments.
When they added SATB1 to normal cells, it triggered a chain of biochemical events that caused cells to form aggressive tumours. If they removed the gene from cancerous cells, it stopped the cells from dividing and spreading.
"This is very exciting," said Rik Thompson of the University of Melbourne and St Vincent's Institute.

"It's amazing these researchers have been able to switch whole families of genes on or off" by manipulating SATB1, he said.
According to Associate Professor Thompson, the research finding could lead to greater understanding of the process of metastasis, as well as providing a new target for treatments of breast cancer.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23365955-2,00.html
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I found this VERY exciting as the research dr expects trials to begin in just a couple of years....

The results, compared to control mice also infected with human metastatic breast cancer cells, were dramatic.
Between 125 and 160 metastatic nodules formed in each lung of all the control mice. But in the rodents in which SATB1 was suppressed, the number was between zero and five.

Kohwi-Shigematsu is working on a means for delivering an inhibitor via microscopic nanocapsules, and said trials on humans could start within a couple of years. Prognostic tools could be available within a year.