For nearly 70 years, MD Anderson has been defined by a single, powerful idea ¡ª to eliminate cancer.
Spring 2010 : Team of Two Oncoproteins Crucial Step in Metastasis
Team of Two Oncoproteins Crucial Step in Metastasis
Researchers have discovered a key molecular mechanism for the deadly transition of non-invasive breast cancer into invasive disease.
This transition is recognized as a crucial step in metastasis, the spread of cancer to distant organs that causes 90% of all cancer deaths.
Dihua Yu, M.D., Ph.D.
Researchers have shown that the protein 14-3-3¦Æ teams with the oncoprotein ErbB2, also known as HER2, in a two-hit process to convert normal mammary cells to invasive cancer cells, says Dihua Yu, M.D., Ph.D., professor in MD Anderson¡¯s Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncology.
In addition to identifying this key step, Yu notes the findings also provide a biomarker to identify high-risk patients who may benefit from more aggressive treatment before their non-invasive breast cancer converts to invasive disease.
Yu and colleagues previously showed that 14-3-3¦Æ is overexpressed in many other cancer types, like lung, liver, uterine and stomach cancers. ¡°Our findings might have broader implications relating to the mechanism of invasion and metastasis in other types of cancer,¡± Yu says.
Reported in the Sept. 9, 2009, edition of the journal Cancer Cell.
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