Recent News and Articles on the Keywords: cancer + breast + linked  Related to the article below (Last Update: 8/7/2008)

deCODE genetics Announces Second Quarter 2008 Financial Results MarketWatch - Diagnostics: Breast cancer. In the second quarter deCODE discovered a fourth set of common single-letter variants (SNPs) associated with risk of estrogen ...DCGN Routine prostate screens 'premature' The Age, Australia - The test, which measures the levels of a cancer-linked protein in the blood, is the best available but it gives an inaccurate indication of cancer in 30 per ... Breast cancer: What you need to know Food Consumer, IL - Aug 5, 2008 High levels of IGF-1 have been linked to elevated risk of prostate cancer, breast cancer and colon cancer, according to a study published in the December ... Sensors to detect oral cancer in saliva ZDNet Blogs - Based on a confocal microscope, the ultrasensitive system is being used by the researchers to detect biomarkers in saliva samples that are linked to oral ... Phalen assault linked to gang Pioneer Press, MN - The woman, who asked to be identified only as Tammie, has breast cancer and said she pleaded with the three strangers who came after her with baseball bats: ... TopNews Strong Bones Linked to Breast Cancer U.S. News & World Report, DC - Jul 28, 2008 A new study links having strong bones to an elevated risk of breast cancer. At first blush, that seems to put women in a bind: tumor if you do, ... New Study Shows Bone Density Linked To Breast Cancer Risk dBTechno Bone Density of Hip Connected to Breast Cancer Risk After Menopause MedPage Today Study Finds Causal Relationship Between High Bone Density and ... eFluxMedia Science Daily (press release) all 54 news articles » Canada.com Genetic discovery offers hope to family with legacy of cancer Canada.com, Canada - Aug 4, 2008 Luana Locke was 25 and eight months pregnant when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Although she gave birth to a healthy son, she had no idea she had ... Genetic discovery may lead to new blood test for people at high ... Canada NewsWire (press release) Genetic Anomaly Discovered, Early Blood Test Could Detect Tumors AHN all 62 news articles » Pro-Pharmaceuticals Granted Pre-IND Meeting for Anti-Hypoxia Drug FOXBusiness - The proposed clinical plan is in direct response to current studies indicating tumors resistance to chemotherapy and radiation are linked to hypoxia. ...PRW Early screening is crucial to improving recovery rates for breast ... Orlando Sentinel, FL - Aug 5, 2008 "One in eight women develops breast cancer by the age of 80." While obesity, alcohol intake and hormone-replacement therapy all have been linked to breast ... BMI linked to cancer mortality News24, South Africa - Jul 29, 2008 New York - A higher body mass index (BMI) is associated with lower survival rates in women with breast cancer, according to a report in the July 10th issue ...

AlphaB-crystallin protein linked to aggressive breast cancer

A study led by Northwestern University researchers has demonstrated that a protein called alphaB-crystallin, which normally protects cells from stress damage, triggers events that may cause breast cancer when overactive.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women and is responsible for over 400,000 deaths annually in women throughout the world.
Most of these deaths are the result of aggressive breast tumors that often fail to respond to current treatments.

The researchers found that women whose breast tumors express the alphaB-crystallin protein have a shorter survival, suggesting that alphaB-crystallin may be a useful molecular marker to identify women with aggressive breast cancer and to develop new targeted cancer therapies.

The study, which is published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, was led by Vincent L. Cryns, director of the Cell Death Regulation Laboratory at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Cryns and colleagues found that introducing the alphaB-crystallin gene into non-cancerous breast cells transformed them into breast cancer cells.
These experiments took advantage of a powerful technique to grow breast cells as three-dimensional ( 3D ) gland-like structures that are similar to those present in the normal breast. However, when the researchers introduced alphaB-crystallin into non-cancerous breast cells, the cells started growing uncontrollably and formed enlarged 3D masses that resemble breast tumors.

" Basically, breast cancer cells have hijacked alphaB-crystallin, a protein that normally protects cells against stress injury and death, and used it to promote their uncontrolled growth," Cryns reflected.

The investigators also showed that alphaB-crystallin activates a key molecular pathway, the MEK-ERK pathway, that leads to unrestrained cell growth in cancer, and that drug inhibitors of this pathway block the cancerous effects of alphaB-crystallin.

" Currently, we don't have any targeted treatments like Tamoxifen ( Nolvadex ) or Trastuzumab ( Herceptin ) for the aggressive type of breast tumors that express alphaB-crystallin. Our results suggest that these tumors may respond to drugs that block this important pathway activated by alphaB-crystallin," Cryns said.

Cryns' laboratory group also observed that non-cancerous breast cells genetically manipulated to express alphaB-crystallin form aggressive breast tumors when injected into mice, confirming their malignant nature.

The team found that these mouse tumors were similar in many respects to human breast tumors which express alphaB-crystallin, suggesting that this mouse model may be useful for testing new treatments for these poor-prognosis tumors. Indeed, the researchers are currently exploring whether drug inhibitors of the MEK-ERK pathway block breast tumor growth in mice.

Source: Northwestern University, 2006