bcr1570 BCJ Poster Presentation <p>AGR2, a novel metastasis inducing protein with an effect on breast cancer patient survival</p> Barraclough DL Innes H Taylor S Davies MPA Platt-Higgins A Sibson DR Rudland PS Barraclough R

Cancer Tissue Bank Research Centre, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

Clatterbridge Cancer Research Trust, JK Douglas Laboratories, Clatterbridge Hospital, Bebington, UK

School of Biological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

 Breast Cancer Research <p>Breast cancer research: the past and the future</p> Meeting abstracts <p>Breast cancer research: the past and the future</p> London, UK 1 November 2006 http://www.breastcancercampaign.org 1465-5411 2006 8 Suppl 2 P15 10.1186/bcr1570 01 11 2006 2006 BioMed Central Ltd

Background

In order to provide potential diagnostic markers and to identify potential targets for breast cancer therapy, gene products that are differentially expressed between benign and malignant cells have been isolated and identified by a combination of PCR-selected suppression subtractive libraries 12 and inhouse cDNA microarrays, screened using mRNAs from human breast cancer specimens. A number of the cDNAs were differentially expressed by greater than twofold, including the one for AGR2, the secreted human homologue of a Xenopus developmental protein.

Methods and results

In an in vivo model system of metastasis, AGR2 induced metastases compared with no metastases in the control groups 3. In immunocytochemistry with an inhouse affinity-purified AGR2 antiserum 3, the presence of AGR2 protein in tumour specimens was statistically significantly associated with malignancy, with oestrogen receptor (ER) alpha-positive carcinomas, with low histological grade and with reduced patient survival over a 10-year period of follow-up of a group of ER-positive cases 4.

Conclusion

Our results demonstrate that AGR2 is causatively involved in metastasis and associated with poor outcome in patients with breast cancer, indicating that AGR2 might be a valuable new potential diagnostic marker and possible target for breast cancer therapy. Further studies are essential to understand the mechanism of AGR2-induced metastasis.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Clatterbridge Cancer Research Trust, The Cancer and Polio Research Fund Ltd and the Higher Education Funding Council for financial support.

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