http://nyp.org/news/hospital/science-briefs-feb.html
Two Genes Play Crucial Role in Breast Cancer
Blocking Genes Prevent Metastasis
Scientists from Weill Cornell Medical College have discovered the role of two recently identified genes in promoting breast cancer metastasis. They believe their findings are important for patients, who die more often from late-stage cancer that spreads to other organs and tissues, than from their primary breast tumor.
The findings, published in the Feb. 2 issue of Cancer Cell, show that cancer cell migration and metastasis was halted after blocking the function of the two genes, called Ora1 and STIM1. When their function is not blocked, these genes allow calcium to enter into the cell, which amplifies cell locomotion, replication and growth.
To make their findings, Dr. Xin-Yun Huang, senior author and a professor of physiology and biophysics, and Dr. Shengyu Yang, the study's first author, experimented on samples of human breast tissues removed from metastatic cancer tumors. In laboratory experiments, they found that blocking the two genes prevented cell migration. The same cancer cells were then labeled with fluorescent markers, in order to track the cells within the body, and injected into fatty tissues of mice that resemble human breast tissues. The investigators found that the spreading of these cells was stopped within mice whose Ora1 and STIM1 genes were blocked, just as found in the laboratory experiments.
These findings are very exciting because the authors consider them to constitute a big step toward creating a therapeutic agent that would block the function of these genes and thus prevent or slow breast cancer metastasis in humans. Dr. Huang adds that preliminary data show that within metastatic breast cancer tissues there is also a higher expression of these two genes, reinforcing the view of their roles and of their usefulness as therapeutic targets.
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