Dissection of a metastatic gene expression signature into distinct components.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Metastasis, the process whereby cancer cells spread, is in part caused by an incompletely understood interplay between cancer cells and the surrounding stroma. Gene expression studies typically analyze samples containing tumor cells and stroma. Samples with less than 50% tumor cells are generally excluded, thereby reducing the number of patients that can benefit from clinically relevant signatures.

Results

For a head-neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) primary tumor expression signature that predicts the presence of lymph node metastasis, we first show that reduced proportions of tumor cells results in decreased predictive accuracy. To determine the influence of stroma on the predictive signature and to investigate the interaction between tumor cells and the surr

SUBMITTER: Roepman P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1794430 | biostudies-literature | 2006

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature