Breast cancer update - 7/16/07
A protein that is necessary for breast cancer to metastasize - or spread to other parts of the body - was recently discovered.
Akt1 is a serine-threonine protein kinase which inhibits apoptosis. Breast and some other cancers cells tend to make too much Akt1. A group of researchers at Thomas Jefferson University genetically engineered some mice so that they would no longer make Akt1.
They then bred these mice with mice that overexpressed the HER2/neu/ErbB2 gene. The HER2/neu/ErbB2 protein is a type of epidermal growth factor receptor. Around 25% or so of breast cancers overexpress this protein.
The researchers found mice that ended up with only one copy of the Akt1 gene developed only small and slow growing tumors. But those with 2 copies developed metastatic cancer.
They also found that Akt1 causes cancer cells to release a protein called CXCL16, a cytokine. CXCL16 helps breast cancer cells to migrate to other regions of the body.
These results - published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - may help in developing drugs that block Akt1 to prevent breast cancer metastases in the future.
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One Response to 'Breast cancer update - 7/16/07'
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on July 22nd, 2007 at 5:17 pm
This research finding could lead to the use of RNAi as a drug treatment option for patients who are found to have this genetic variation. VERY interesting research being done by this research group.