An earlier start on diagnosing breast, prostate cancers

Using biological samples taken from patients and state-of-the-art biochemical techniques, a Florida State University researcher is working to identify a variety of "biomarkers" that might provide earlier warnings of the presence of breast and prostate cancers.

"Biomarkers are indicators of certain biological and pathological processes that are occurring, such as cancer," said Qing-Xiang "Amy" Sang, a professor in Florida State's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. "Either the cancer cells themselves, or surrounding normal tissue for that matter, can produce specific proteins or exhibit other biological changes that provide a signal that something unusual is taking place. Different types of cancer produce different biomarkers, so the challenge is to identify the most effective one for each type of the disease."

For more than 15 years, Sang and her colleagues have focused their efforts on two types of cancers that are particularly prevalent in the United States: breast and prostate. National Cancer Institute statistics illustrate the enormity of the problem:

* An estimated 207,090 American women and 1,970 men were expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer during the year 2010, with 39,840 women and 390 men dying from the disease. It is the second most frequent type of cancer and second leading cause of cancer death among American women.
* An estimated 217,730 American men were expected to be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2010, with 32,050 men dying. It is the most frequent type of cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death among American men.

"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has recognized three separate biomarkers for the identification of breast cancer and one for prostate cancer," Sang said. "But if we can identify new and more accurate biomarkers that offer even earlier glimpses of these diseases, we stand a better chance of offering patients the most customized treatment possible, then, being able to closely monitor their progress, provide follow-up treatment as needed. With earlier diagnosis and treatment, the end result will hopefully be fewer people dying from these cancers."

Sang and five colleagues recently co-wrote a paper published in the cancer research journal Clinical and Experimental Metastasis that could set the stage for breakthroughs in the identification of new biomarkers for breast cancer. Their paper, "Alteration in Protein Expression in Estrogen Receptor Alpha-Negative Human Breast Cancer Tissues Indicates a Malignant and Metastatic Phenotype," (http://www.springerlink.com/content/wqrh887k711729g0/) noted that most research efforts involving breast cancer have focused on epithelial cells - cells that line the surfaces of structures throughout the body - while paying less attention to the stromal cells, or connective cells, that lie beneath them. Those stromal cells, however, may play a larger role in the spread of breast cancers than was previously known, and measuring the number and amount of immunoreactive and metastasis-suppressing proteins that they produce could provide an early indication of how likely the cancer is to metastasize.