A gene involved in the adhesion of cells is less active in breast tumors with a poor prognosis than those that are less aggressive, researchers found.

Measuring the activity of the ALCAM gene in primary breast tumors could give physicians advanced warning about the likely clinical outcome of the disease. This should help them decide whether to prescribe a more aggressive treatment regimen, such as chemotherapy, much earlier in the diagnostic process.

Dr Judy King and colleagues, from University of South Alabama and University of Wales College of Medicine, compared the expression of the gene for the Activated Leukocyte Cell Adhesion Molecule (ALCAM) in normal breast tissue and tissue samples from primary breast tumors. To do this they counted the number of mRNA transcripts of the ALCAM gene in the different samples.

The researchers found that the ALCAM gene was significantly less active in higher-grade tumors compared to lower-grade tumors, and in tumors with a worse prognosis compared to those with a better prognosis.

Tumors from patients who died of breast cancer had significantly lower levels of ALCAM transcripts than those with primary tumors but no metastatic disease or local recurrence, write the researchers.

They continue: The data clearly suggest that decreased ALCAM expression in the primary tumor is of clinical significance in breast cancer, and that reduced expression indicates a more aggressive phenotype and poor prognosis.

They suggest that quantitative PCR, to measure the number of ALCAM transcripts in a tissue sample from a primary breast tumor, could be used to identify these more aggressive tumors at an early stage.

As ALCAM is involved in keeping cells together in a clump, the researchers hypothesize that reduced expression of the gene might allow the tumor cells to separate from one another. This would allow cells to enter the circulation and promote the formation of secondary tumors, which makes the cancer harder to treat.

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The grant will be used to add optical detection, establish protocols for reverse transcription and the quantification of PCR, as well as to collect kinetic data of various polymerase enzymes to create mathematical models. The researchers have partnered with Michael Nelson, president of the Lincoln biotechnology firm Megabase Research Products. The firm provides the required biochemistry expertise.

"This is an interdisciplinary project. Putting together a group of chemical engineers, mechanical engineers and biochemists has been very critical to the success of the project," Gogos said. "We have built a device with vast medical and non-medical applications which at the same time is a scientific instrument for basic studies."

The implications for this innovative technology are many. "We hope to form cross-disciplinary teams of researchers to look at parallel applications of this technology," said Dipanjan Nag, a technology development associate with the UNL Office of Technology Development, which provided the researchers with an additional $75,000 grant for further development of the technology.

"This NIH grant demonstrates that we are at the cutting edge of research," Nag said. "And it has tremendous potential in biosecurity- and bioterrorism-related research."