Hi ladies, eventhough I have been slack on the input to the forum lately I have been lurking but more so doing research for us, so if it takes scientists years to come up with cures for everything else there is no reason why we can't find the cure, we are managing to stay one step ahead of it now and most of it our oncs don't even know about, so here goes. Also before I went on Her/Taxol/Carbo my onc had not even heard of the combo let alone give it consideration thinking it was too toxic when I suggested and it was from info on this forum and research that I have today had my 18th dose and there are now heaps of his patients on the Taxol/carbo but sadly only a couple have been able to have herceptin so hopefully this will not be a problem to the others, so what does that tell you, we are smarter than our oncs?
ESMO: Mammaglobin Expression in Invasive Breast Cancer Is Associated With Favourable Outcome
By Adrian Burton
NICE, FRANCE -- October 19, 2002 -- High mammaglobin expression levels by oestrogen-receptor positive breast cancer primary tumour cells is -- oddly enough -- a good prognostic marker in invasive disease.
This finding sounds counterintuitive since mammaglobin, a protein specifically expressed by breast cells, is used to look for breast metastases in the blood. The new study shows, however, that the range of expression is very wide, meaning that low level-expressing metastases could slip by unnoticed.
"We found that there was a 100,000-fold range of expression of this protein by different tumours," explained Dr. Paul Span, Associate Professor of Biochemistry, University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. "If we know someone has a low-expression tumour, then we know we have to be more careful when looking for metastases." Dr. Span presented his findings at the 27th Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology.
Dr. Span's team investigated mammaglobin expression in the primary tumour cells of 283 patients (median age, 60 years; range, 30-88) who had received surgery for unilateral invasive breast cancer. Levels of the marker were assessed by measuring mammaglobin mRNA levels with quantitative real-time PCR.
Highly variable expression levels were recorded (mammaglobin: beta actin ratio median, 0.11; range, 0-288). Comparing these data to survival data, univariate analysis showed that a high expression ratio (more than 0.11) was significantly associated with a longer relapse-free survival time (p = 0.023) and overall survival time (p = 0.036). When stratified by treatment, the association with relapse-free survival time was maintained in patients treated with adjuvant endocrine treatment, i.e., whose tumours were oestrogen-receptor positive (n = 91; p = 0.013; hazard ratio 0.414).
"In this group we saw the strongest prognostic power of mammaglobin levels. This is something that we didn't expect at all, since mammaglobin in the blood is a marker of metastases and therefore classically of poor prognosis. What our results mean is that low-level expression tumours are the bad ones ... because you'll miss the metastases altogether," explained Dr. Span.
"Mammaglobin expression probably has something to do with oestrogen," concluded Dr. Span, "but we are not sure what."
I have discovered a very revealling site on detection tests but when I put the address in here I can't get it back up but this is how I have logged it onto my favourites but to long to post here, 26 pages of info which is mind boggling and covers all mets.
Love & big hugs Lyn
this is the address I have
http://www.geocities.com/m.lacroix/2001_3.htm
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