Mammary Cell News Volume 3.12 | Mar 31 2011

Loss of Rho GDI Sparks Resistance to Treatment, Opens Doorway for Metastasis Studies in Hormone Receptor Positive Breast Cancer
The estrogen inhibitor tamoxifen can prevent breast cancer from coming back in treated women whose tumors grow in the presence of the hormone. Unfortunately, tamoxifen’s anti-tumor effect wanes in about half of these women, and now researchers think they know why. [Press release from the Baylor College of Medicine discussing online prepublication in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute]

New “Nanodrug” Breaks Down Barriers to Attack Breast Cancer Cells from the Inside Out
Unlike other drugs that target cancer cells from the outside with minimal effect, this “transport vehicle” carries multiple drugs that spare healthy cells, accumulate in tumor cells and strike cancer-specific molecular targets inside. [Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Press Release]

New Cancer Drug Discovered at U-M Heads to Clinical Trials
Researchers have developed a new drug called AT-406 with potential to treat multiple types of cancer. [Press release from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center discussing online prepublication in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry]

Breast Cancer Prevention Drugs ‘Should be Prescribed’
Women at high risk of developing breast cancer should be given preventative drugs, according to an international panel of cancer experts. [Press release from BBC News Health discussing online prepublication in Lancet Oncology]

New Technology at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia Aids Surgeons With Early Detection of Lymphedemain Breast Cancer Patients
Breast cancer specialists at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center are offering patients new ways to detect early signs of lymphedema, a common side effect of breast cancer surgery that causes painful, debilitating and disfiguring swelling in the arms following removal of lymph nodes. [Newswise]

Interventional Radiologists Provide Hope in Delaying Growth, Spread of Breast Cancer
The growth and spread of breast cancer tumors may be delayed with a promising treatment that combines two innovative strategies: blocking the enzyme needed to “energize” cancer cells and infusing a potent drug directly into the tumor, with minimum exposure to healthy tissues, indicate researchers. [Press release from PR Newswire discussing data presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology’s 36th Annual Scientific Meeting]

LABORATORY RESEARCH

Loss of Rho GDIα and Resistance to Tamoxifen via Effects on Estrogen Receptor α
To identify genes whose expression was associated with the development of tamoxifen resistance and metastasis, researchers used microarrays to compare gene expression in four primary tumors from tamoxifen-treated patients whose breast cancers did not recur vs five metastatic tumors from patients whose cancers progressed during adjuvant tamoxifen treatment. [J Natl Cancer Inst]

miR-125b is Methylated and Functions as A Tumor Suppressor by Regulating the ETS1 proto-oncogene in Human Invasive Breast Cancer
Here researchers report that miR-125b is downregulated in invasive breast cancers where it predicts poor patient survival. [Cancer Res]

Bcl-2 Inhibits Nuclear Homologous Recombination by Localizing BRCA1 to the Endomembranes
Here researchers identified the breast cancer tumor suppressor BRCA1, which plays an essential role in homologous recombination (HR), as a target for Bcl-2 in the repression of HR. [Cancer Res]

Knockdown of FLOT1 Impairs Cell Proliferation and Tumorigenicity in Breast Cancer through Upregulation of FOXO3a
The aim of the present study was to examine the role of FLOT1 on the tumorigenesis of breast cancer cells and its clinical significance in progression of the disease. [Clin Cancer Res]

A Galectin-3 Sequence Polymorphism Confers TRAIL Sensitivity to Human Breast Cancer Cells
The results of the current study indicate that the naturally occurring Pro64His mutation in galectin-3 increases sensitivity to death receptor-mediated apoptosis. [Cancer]

A Potent and Orally Active Antagonist (SM-406/AT-406) of Multiple Inhibitor of Apoptosis Proteins (IAPs) in Clinical Development for Cancer Treatment
Researchers report the discovery and characterization of SM-406 (compound 2), a potent and orally bioavailable Smac mimetic and an antagonist of the inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAPs). [J Med Chem]

Wnt/β-Catenin Signalling Pathway and Thioredoxin-Interacting Protein (TXNIP) Mediate the “Glucose Sensor” Mechanism in Metastatic Breast Cancer Derived Cells MDA-MB-231
In this study researchers investigated the effect of glucose on GSK3β and β-catenin expression and the involvement of the N-linked glycosylation and hexosamine pathways in the Wnt canonical pathway in response to in vitro conditions resembling normoglycemia (5 mMol) and hyperglycemia (20 mMol) in the metastatic breast cancer derived cell line MDA-MB-231. [J Cell Physiol]

Expression of DDX3 Is Directly Modulated by Hypoxia Inducible Factor-1 Alpha in Breast Epithelial Cells
Here, researchers demonstrate that hypoxia inducible factor-1α is a transcriptional activator of DDX3 in breast cancer cells. [PLoS ONE]

A Computational Method to Classify Variants of Uncertain Significance Using Functional Assay Data With Application to BRCA1
Researchers describe a computational approach for inferring the disease relevance of VUSs in disease genes from data derived from an in vitro functional assay. [Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev]

CLINICAL RESEARCH

Prospective Study of Breast Cancer Incidence in Women With a BRCA1 or BRCA2 Mutation Under Surveillance With and Without Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Annual surveillance with MRI is associated with a significant reduction in the incidence of advanced-stage breast cancer in BRCA1 and BRCA2 carriers. [J Clin Oncol]

It’s Now or Never: Fertility-Related Knowledge, Decision-Making Preferences, and Treatment Intentions in Young Women With Breast Cancer—An Australian Fertility Decision Aid Collaborative Group Study
One hundred eleven young women with early breast cancer who had not yet completed their families were recruited around the time of diagnosis. Knowledge regarding fertility-related information, decisional conflict, and preferences regarding fertility information and decision making was measured. [J Clin Oncol]

Preventive Therapy for Breast Cancer: a Consensus Statement
In March, 2010, a group of breast cancer experts met to develop a consensus statement on breast cancer prevention, with a focus on medical and therapeutic interventions. They present the conclusions in this Review. [Lancet Oncol]

Breast Cancer and Age in Black and White Women in South East England
Records on female residents of South East England diagnosed with breast cancer between 1998 and 2003 were extracted from the Thames Cancer Registry database. Age-specific incidence rates were calculated for each 5-year age group using 2001 Census population data for White, Black Caribbean and Black African women. [Int J Cancer]

Change in Blood Flow Velocity Demonstrated by Doppler Ultrasound in Upper Limb After Axillary Dissection Surgery for the Treatment of Breast Cancer
The aim of this study was to evaluate the arterial and venous blood flow in women who underwent upper limb axillary dissection surgery for the treatment of breast cancer. [Breast Cancer Res Treat]

Long-Term Clinical Outcome of Oestrogen Receptor-Positive Operable Primary Breast Cancer in Older Women: A Large Series from a Single Centre
A Cochrane review of seven randomised trials (N=1571) comparing surgery and primary endocrine therapy (PET) (oestrogen receptor (ER) unselected) shows no difference in overall survival (OS). Researchers report outcome of a large series with ER-positive (ER+) early invasive primary breast cancer. [Br J Cancer]

RXi Pharmaceuticals Aggressively Moves into Late-Stage Clinical Development with the Agreement to Acquire Apthera, Inc.
RXi Pharmaceuticals Corporation, a recognized leader in RNAi-based therapeutic discovery and development, and Apthera, Inc., a private biotechnology company developing a pipeline of peptide-based immunotherapies for the adjuvant treatment of HER2-positive breast and other cancers, announced the signing of a definitive merger agreement under which RXi will acquire Apthera. [RXi Pharmaceuticals Corporation Press Release]

Susan Band Horwitz, Ph.D., Receives Eighth Annual AACR Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research
Susan Band Horwitz, Ph.D., will receive the Eighth Annual American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research. [AACR Press Release]

AACR Honors Eminent Researchers
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) will recognize leading cancer researchers whose work has significantly contributed to progress in the fight against cancer at the AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011. [AACR Press Release]

Duncan Cancer Center Researchers Awarded $15.9 Million in New Round of CPRIT Grants
Researchers in the NCI-designated Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center at Baylor College of Medicine have received an additional $15.9 million in the new round of grants announced by the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas. [Baylor College of Medicine Press Release]

Budget Boost for Cancer Screening and Education
The province of Ontario pledged $15 million over the next three years to fund breast cancer screenings for women under 50, using a special pink page in the budget document to highlight the initiative. [CTV News]

National Institutes of Health (United States)

Food and Drug Administration (United States)

Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (United States)

European Medicines Agency (European Union)

Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (United Kingdom)

Therapeutic Goods Administration (Australia)

NEW Expert Practice in Metastatic Breast Cancer
May 21, 2011
Frankfurt, Germany

Visit our events page to see a complete list of events in the mammary cell community.

Lab Technologist – Human Embryonic and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (STEMCELL Technologies)

Post-doctoral Position Metastasis Research Laboratory (University of Liege) 

Post-doctoral Fellow (University of Texas Medical School at Houston) 

PhD Program – Tumor Cell Intrinsic Signaling Pathways that Regulate Immune Suppression (Lady Davis Institute of Medical Research)

Post-doctoral Fellow (New Jersey Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey)

Post-doctoral Position in Cancer Research (Tufts Medical Center)

Post-doctoral Fellow in Gene Expression/Cancer and Stem Cell Biology (University of Cincinnati College of Medicine)

Post-doctoral Research Associate (University of Wisconsin – Madison)

Post-doctoral Fellow (University of Texas Medical School at Houston)

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