Breast tumor metastasis: analysis via proteomic profiling

Abstract

The ability to predict the metastatic behavior of a patient's cancer, as well as to detect and eradicate such recurrences, remain major clinical challenges in oncology. While many potential molecular biomarkers have been identified and tested previously, none have greatly improved the accuracy of specimen evaluation over routine histopathological criteria and, to date, they predict individual outcomes poorly. The ongoing development of high-throughput proteomic profiling technologies is opening new avenues for the investigation of cancer and, through application in tissue-based studies and animal models, will facilitate the identification of molecular signatures that are associated with breast tumor cell phenotype. The appropriate use of these approaches has the potential to provide efficient biomarkers, and to improve our knowledge of tumor biology. This, in turn, will enable the development of targeted therapeutics aimed at ameliorating the lethal dissemination of breast cancer. In this review, we focus on the accumulating proteomic signatures of breast tumor progression, particularly those that correlate with the occurrence of distant metastases, and discuss some of the expected future developments in the field.

Personalized Cancer Medicine: From Molecular Diagnostics to Targeted Therapy with Natural Products

“…The data suggest that various metastasis profiles exist. This has also been shown for other tumor types by other authors [75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83].…”

Proteome profiling of immortalization‐to‐senescence transition of human breast epithelial cells identified MAP2K3 as a senescence‐promoting protein which is downregulated in human breast cancer

“…A number of proteomics studies indicated involvement of multiple regulatory mechanisms in breast tumorigenesis 3, 16–19. Among these mechanisms, there were described signaling pathways initiated by growth factors, such as EGF, transforming growth factor‐β, nerve growth factor and hepatocyte growth factor, and scaffold proteins, such as 14‐3‐3σ 17–19.…”

Signaling pathways in breast cancer metastasis - novel insights from functional genomics

“…Additionally, proteomics-based approaches are advancing at a rapid pace as mass spectrometry technologies continue to evolve. While current sensitivity levels may make whole-cell proteomics approaches cumbersome, subcellular fractions are now being sequenced at the protein level with success [ 65 , 66 ]. Appropriate utilization of omics - level DNA-, RNA-, and protein-based approaches can only be expected to synergize in unraveling the mystery of the breast cancer metastasis genetic program.…”