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Evaluation of expression based markers for the detection of breast cancer cells

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Breast Cancer Research and Treatment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Summary

Introduction

Genes that are expressed in a highly tissue- or disease-specific manner provide possible targets for therapeutics, early detection of cancer, and monitoring of disease burden during and after treatment. Further, genes of this type that code for secreted or shed proteins may allow for serum detection of the product facilitating our ability to specifically detect the cancer in all circumstances. To this end, we are working towards identification and characterization of such genes that are specifically expressed in breast epithelium. In the current study, we have measured the expression of two markers that emerged from a screen of the Incyte LifeSeq Database and were subsequently shown to be highly restricted to breast epithelium termed BU101 (also called Lipophilin B) and BS106 (small mucin-like protein). These two novel markers were compared with two other candidate markers, Mammaglobin and Cytokeratin 19 (CK19).

Methods

Utilizing quantitative real-time PCR, we compared the expression of these four genes in a series of 95 primary breast cancers, 9 lymph nodes from breast cancer patients, 13 lymph nodes from non-cancer patients and 10 normal breast tissues.

Results

Cytokeratin was shown to be highly sensitive in detecting all breast cancers, while BU101, BS106 and Mammaglobin were more restricted.

Conclusion

While no one of the these markers efficiently detects all breast cancers, a combination of two or more could achieve a very high sensitivity in assaying for circulating or occult breast cancer cells.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Nancy Glover for her excellent technical assistance. This work was supported by an Early Detection Research Network grant to J.R.M., NIH UO1 CA84955.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA

    Nicholas M. Brown, Timothy T. Stenzel & Jeffrey R. Marks

  2. Abbott Laboratories Diagnostic Division, Abbott Park, IL, USA

    Paula N. Friedman & Jerry Henslee

  3. Department of Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA

    Gudrun Huper & Jeffrey R. Marks

  4. Quest Diagnostics, Chantilly, VA, USA

    Nicholas M. Brown

  5. Vysis, Inc., Downers Grove, IL, USA

    Timothy T. Stenzel

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  1. Nicholas M. Brown
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  2. Timothy T. Stenzel
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  3. Paula N. Friedman
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  4. Jerry Henslee
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  5. Gudrun Huper
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  6. Jeffrey R. Marks
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jeffrey R. Marks.

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These two authors contributed equally to the work

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Brown, N.M., Stenzel, T.T., Friedman, P.N. et al. Evaluation of expression based markers for the detection of breast cancer cells. Breast Cancer Res Treat 97, 41–47 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-005-9085-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-005-9085-8

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