plus 3, Investigators Find that SRC-3 Enables Breast Cancer Invasion - Genetic Engineering News

Investigators Find that SRC-3 Enables Breast Cancer Invasion - Genetic Engineering News
Breast Cancer Stats Differ Racially Despite Similar Mammogram Rates - US News and World Report
BizTimes Nonprofit Weekly: Kohl’s to donate to fight breast cancer - Biz Times
Short-Term Radiation Therapy Successful on Breast Cancer - Science Daily

Investigators Find that SRC-3 Enables Breast Cancer Invasion - Genetic Engineering News

Posted: 14 Feb 2010 08:54 PM PST

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Feb 15 2010, 12:01 AM EST

Investigators Find that SRC-3 Enables Breast Cancer Invasion

GEN News Highlights

The gene SRC-3 (steroid receptor co-activator 3) is not only involved in breast cancer growth but also in metastases, according to Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) researchers and collaborators. They were able to determine how the gene sends a signal to the cell membrane to promote cell motility. The research appears in the current issue of Molecular Cell.

SRC-3 is reportedly overexpressed in two-thirds of breast cancers. It is also known that SRC-3 enhances estrogen-dependent growth of cancer cells by activating and encouraging the transcription of a genetic message into a protein. However, how the message to invade other cells gets from the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) to the activating enzyme called FAK (focal adhesion kinase) found on the cell's membrane had not been determined, notes Bert O'Malley, M.D., chair of molecular and cellular biology at BCM and the report's senior author.

Dr. O'Malley's current research uncovered new activity for SRC-3 at the cell's periphery. They found that the gene can produce a shorter form of its co-activator protein that is missing the part that keeps it in the nucleus. With this exon gone, it is free to travel into the cytoplasm and to the membrane, Dr. O'Malley explains. "At the membrane, the enzyme PAK1 phosphorylates SRC-3, allowing it to function at the membrane."

The finding explains how the epidermal growth factor receptor at the membrane gets a signal to the enzyme that tells the cell to move and ultimately grow, allowing the cancer to invade surrounding tissue, Dr. O'Malley adds.

"Now we have a final picture as to why epidermal growth factor receptor and the estrogen receptor are the most dangerous combination of molecules overproduced in breast cancer. When they are both overfunctioning, people die quickly and are resistant to therapy," Dr. O'Malley points out.

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Breast Cancer Stats Differ Racially Despite Similar Mammogram Rates - US News and World Report

Posted: 12 Feb 2010 03:06 PM PST

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FRIDAY, Feb. 12 (HealthDay News) -- Black women are 30 percent to 90 percent more likely to be diagnosed with advanced breast cancer than white women, researchers report.

A new study, based on an analysis of 1992-2004 cancer statistics, also finds that a racial disparity in cases of advanced colorectal cancer widened between blacks and whites of both genders.

The findings were published recently in the journal Hormones and Cancer.

"While we could not determine the exact contributors to the trends we saw in this study, it is interesting to note that for breast cancer, mammographic screening rates were quite similar among African-American and white women in the United States during the time period we studied. This suggests that factors other than screening may be contributing to this persistent disparity, including differences in both lifestyle and genetics," senior study author Dr. Christopher I. Li, an associate member of the Public Health Sciences Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, said in a news release from the center.

However, Li said black women have more aggressive tumors in general than white women who aren't Hispanic. The tumors are also harder to treat.

The study included data on 7,237 women -- 1,364 blacks and 5,873 whites -- with newly diagnosed distant-stage breast cancer. Throughout the study period, the rates remained fairly constant, affecting about 18 out of 100,000 black women and 12 out of 100,000 white women.

As for colorectal cancer, researchers looked at statistics for 8,920 people with late-stage cases and found a significant increase among blacks during the time period studied. Blacks were 60 percent more likely to be diagnosed with advanced colorectal cancer than whites in 1992, and by 2004, that likelihood had doubled, they said.

More information

The National Cancer Institute has more on breast cancer.

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BizTimes Nonprofit Weekly: Kohl’s to donate to fight breast cancer - Biz Times

Posted: 12 Feb 2010 11:24 AM PST

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Published February 12, 2010 - BizTimes Daily

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Menomonee Falls-based Kohl's Corp. will donate more than $7 million during a three-year partnership with the American Cancer Society and Susan G. Komen for the Cure in Wisconsin. The donation represents the largest donation ever given to any affiliate of the Susan G. Komen organization, as well as the largest to the American Cancer Society's Midwest division. "At a time when many companies are cutting philanthropic giving, we are in a financial position that allows us to expand our community relations programs with a new focus on women's causes," said Kevin Mansell, Kohl's president, chief executive officer and chairman of the board. Read more in the latest edition of the BizTimes Nonprofit Weekly bulletin.

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Short-Term Radiation Therapy Successful on Breast Cancer - Science Daily

Posted: 11 Feb 2010 11:40 AM PST

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ScienceDaily (Feb. 11, 2010) — An intense three-week course of radiation therapy is just as effective as the standard five-week regimen for women with early-stage breast cancer.

Dr. Tim Whelan, a professor of oncology of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University, led a team of researchers to find that women who received the accelerated therapy have a low risk of the breast cancer for as long as 12 years after treatment.

The results are to be published in the Feb. 11 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), and have been presented to a meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology.

The study concluded a shorter, more intense course of therapy is as safe and effective as the standard treatment for select women who have undergone breast-conserving surgery.

Women who receive a three-week treatment -- called accelerated hypofractionated whole-breast irradiation -- have a low risk of side effects and recurrence of the cancer more than decade after treatment. It is just as effective as the standard five-week course of radiation following surgery to remove the malignancy.

Dr. Whelan said the study's results will change cancer treatment practice not just in Canada, but throughout North America and around the world.

"This is win-win: shorter intense treatment is better for the patient and less costly to provide," said Dr. Whelan, who is also a radiation oncologist at the Juravinski Cancer Centre at Hamilton Health Sciences.

Many women with early-stage breast cancer are able to undergo breast-conserving therapy to keep their breast after treatment. Typically, this means they first have a lumpectomy to remove the cancer followed by a course of radiation therapy to kill any remaining cancer cells.

Between April 1993 and September 1996, researchers randomly assigned 1,234 women from Ontario and Quebec to be treated with either accelerated radiation or standard radiation. The participants were followed for 12 years to determine if the accelerated whole-breast radiation was as effective as the standard treatment.

A decade after treatment, breast cancer returned in 6.2 percent of patients treated with the accelerated radiation therapy, compared to 6.7 percent for patients treated with standard therapy. Both groups of patients also had a good or excellent cosmetic outcome from the radiation treatments.

Whelan said further research is now looking at even shorter more intensive therapy.

"We're now in the midst of further study on more intense radiation over an even shorter time, and we're seeing positive results."

Story Source:

Adapted from materials provided by McMaster University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

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Breast Cancer

Monday, February 15, 2010