Early Marker for Metastasizing Breast Cancer

Promising results from a new study show that a tiny protein called RhoC can serve as a marker for breast tumors that are most likely to metastasize, even identifying them when they are less than 1 cm in diameter. The findings were reported at the annul meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in San Francisco.

A test based on the marker was developed by doctors at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center (Ann Arbor, MI, USA). Effectiveness was displayed in a study of 182 tissue samples from U-M's breast cancer library. The test detected invasive cancer that had the potential to metastasize with 88% specificity, with 92% specificity for tiny tumors that had already metastasized. Samples of normal breast tissue or noninvasive breast cancer had little RhoC.

The U-M team was the first to show that RhoC--already implicated in liver, pancreas, and skin cancer—was also involved in breast cancer. In addition, the team found that the level of RhoC expression increased as the stage of the cancer increased. The team is now in the process of planning critical studies on the predictive power of RhoC.

"While more research is needed before clinical testing can begin, we hope it will help identify early-stage cancer that could be vulnerable to aggressive treatment, perhaps with drugs that target the RhoC protein,” said Celina Kleer, M.D., assistant professor of pathology at the U-M Medical School.




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