Lung metastasis genes couple breast tumor size and metastatic spread.

ABSTRACT: The association between large tumor size and metastatic risk in a majority of clinical cancers has led to questions as to whether these observations are causally related or whether one is simply a marker for the other. This is partly due to an uncertainty about how metastasis-promoting gene expression changes can arise in primary tumors. We investigated this question through the analysis of a previously defined "lung metastasis gene-expression signature" (LMS) that mediates experimental breast cancer metastasis selectively to the lung and is expressed by primary human breast cancer with a high risk for developing lung metastasis. Experimentally, we demonstrate that the LMS promotes primary tumor growth that enriches for LMS(+) cells, and it allows for intravasation after reaching a critica

SUBMITTER: Minn AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1871856 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature