Metastasis markers

Weigelt B, Peterse IL, van t Veer LJ (2005) Breast cancer metastasis markers and models. Nat Rev Cancer 5 591-602... 

Traditional markers of prognosis in cancer have relied on histological features such as tumor size and grade and whether or not local lymph nodes have metastasis. While these histological variables have been widely used over the years in assessing patient outcome, none is ideal. 

The presence or absence of metastases in local lymph nodes is widely used as a prognostic marker. Generally, patients with metastasis in these lymph nodes have a significantly poorer outcome than those patients without metastases. However, at least in the case of breast cancer, about 25-30% of node-negative patients die from their disease within 10 years. As mentioned earlier, there is a particular urgent need for new markers to identify those high-risk, axillary node-negative breast cancer patients. 

In recent years, a large number of new biochemical prognostic markers have been described for cancer. These include steroid receptors, cellular or c-onco-genes, suppressor genes, and molecules directly involved in metastasis, such as proteases and adhesion proteins. 

Since certain proteases are directly involved in cancer invasion and metastasis, levels of these proteases in primary cancers should be strong markers of metastatic potential or poor patient outcome. 

R3. Rochefort, H., Cathepsin D in breast cancer A tissue marker associated with metastasis. Eur. 

Cat B is an abundant and ubiquitously expressed cysteine peptidase of the papain family and makes up a major fraction of lysosomal enzymes that is capable of degrading components of the extracellular matrix in various diseases [30-32]. Cat B is also a prognostic marker for several types of cancer [33], and increased expression and secretion of cat B has been shown to be involved in the migration and invasion of various tumours [34—36], The precise role of cat B in solid tumours is not fully understood, but it has been proposed to participate, along with other cysteine cathepsins, in metastasis, angiogenesis, and tumour progression [37], Indeed, cat B inhibitors reduce both tumour cell motility and invasiveness in vitro [38], Recently, metal complexes based on rhenium, gold and palladium were shown to be effective inhibitors of cat B [39-44],... 

MS-based mass profiling combined with multivariate analysis identified platelet factor 4, a chemokine with prothrombolytic and antiangiogenic activities, as a diagnostically predictive protein in depleted serum of prostate cancer patients [99]. SELDI-TOF-MS was applied to the discovery of serum markers of bone metastasis in prostate cancer. Unique isoforms of serum amyloid A were identified in these patients. Machine-learning algorithms were used to identify these patients with a sensitivity and specificity of 89% [100],... 

The most critical component for the study of metastasis is metastasizing cells. Since most people obtain their cells from cell culture, it is important to outline some of the criteria for the proper preparation and maintenance of those cultures. Details are omitted regarding verification of species of origin (karyotype, isozyme expression, etc.), tissue of origin (surface markers, enzyme expression patterns) and absence of opportunistic infections. It is presumed that such characterization will be done by readers of this volume before any... 

Tab. 37.12 Laboratory findings and tumour markers arousing suspicion in liver metastasis...

The following factors are decisive for the success rate (7.) age of the patient, (2.) distribution pattern and number of metastases, (3.) size of the largest metastasis, (4.) stage of primary tumour, (5.) extrahepatic metastases, (6.) lymph node involvement, (7.) respective value of the tumour marker, and (5.) intraoperative blood loss. (323)... 

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