Potent Metastasis Suppressor Gene Identified

Researchers using DNA microarray technology to evaluate the expression profile of cancer-related genes in 105 pathologically characterized tumors from seven common organ sites have found that the RhoGDI2 gene is a metastasis suppressor, a marker of aggressive human cancer and a promising target for therapy. Their finding was published in the November 15, 2002, issue of Cancer Research.

The investigators, from the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center (Charlottesville, USA; www.virginia.edu), transplanted the RhoGDI2 gene into a series of aggressive cancer lines. They found that while the cells continued to grow normally, they lost their ability to metastasize. The protein produced by RhoGDI2 prevents the cancer cell from undergoing metastasis. A diagnostic test to determine its presence or absence in cancerous tissue could help to guide treatment of the disease.

"We found the greatest RhoGDI2 loss in invasive and metastatic cancer tissue. At this point, it is clear the gene plays a role in the cancer's lethal progression to metastasis and not in the initial formation of the cancer,” explained senior author Dr. Dan Theodorescu, professor of urology and molecular physiology at the University of Virginia. "As such, it is one of only a handful of true metastasis suppressor genes known.”




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