Detection of Mammaglobin in the Sera of Patients with Breast Cancer

Abstract

Current procedures for the diagnosis of breast cancer are cumbersome and invasive, making detection of this disease difficult. A rapid screening test for early detection of breast cancer would allow for better management of this deadly disease. In this report, we show that, with the exception of the skin, mammaglobin mRNA is specifically expressed in mammary tissue and commonly overexpressed in breast cancer. Mammaglobin is not expressed in other types of cancer including colon, lung, ovarian, and prostate cancer. Breast-specific expression of mammaglobin protein was shown using immunohistochemical methods. Mammaglobin is secreted from both established breast cancer cell lines and primary breast carcinoma cells cultured in vitro. Using a monoclonal antibody-based assay for monitoring the presence of mammaglobin in serum, elevated levels of mammaglobin were detected in sera of patients with breast cancer, but not in healthy women. Thus, mammaglobin, which is overexpressed and secreted from breast carcinoma cells, is detectable in sera of patients with breast cancer and may provide a rapid screening test for the diagnosis and management of breast cancer.

Relevance of circulating tumor cells, extracellular nucleic acids, and exosomes in breast cancer

“…A more recent study reported high MGB1 levels in primary breast cancers to be indicative of a less aggressive tumor phenotype and correlating with the expression of ER and PR, low Ki-67 labeling and absence of nodal invasion [133]. There has, so far, been no reported documentation of circulating transcripts of MGB1, however, MGB1 protein has been detected in sera of breast cancer patients [134,135].…”

Molecular and Immunological Evaluation of the Transcription Factor SOX-4 as a Lung Tumor Vaccine Antigen

“…Although there are a number of gene products that are overexpressed by tumors that are being evaluated as vaccine candidates (most notably the melanoma differentiation Ags), quantitative measurements for the degree of overexpression in tumor vs normal tissues are for the most part lacking. Nonetheless, the fold overexpression of SOX-4 in tumor samples compared with normal lung compares favorably with other tumor overexpressed Ags, such as MUC-1, p53, and mammaglobin (26,27).…”

Cloning expression, monoclonal antibody preparation and serologic study of mammaglobin in breast cancer

“…The mRNA detec-439 STUDY OF MAMMAGLOBIN IN BREAST CANCER tion of mammaglobin by RT-PCR can elevate the percentage of the diagnosis for micrometastasis of axillary or sentinel lymph node [8,9,10]. Using RT-PCR to test the mRNA of mammaglobin and CK-19 have been validated by FDA for biopsy of sentinel lymph node in operation [11,12] Many other studies also showed that RT-PCR can test mRNA of mammaglobin in breast cancer patients' blood, which had great sensitivity to micrometastasis of breast cancer cell in blood vessel [3,4,5,6]. …”

“…It has been reported that mammaglobin is constructed with 93 amino acid [5,6] and 8-93 is the active sequence of the protein through the analysis of BioSun [7].…”

“…It has been reported that the mRNA of mammaglobin can be detected by RT-PCR in peripheral blood [2,3,4] Fanger et al confirmed that mammaglobin in the serum produced by breast cancer cells could be detected by ELISA [5]. So far, only a few studies of the serologic detection of mammaglobin were reported.…”