Research Briefs

Research conducted at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has corroborated earlier findings that breast cancer may be signaled by excess levels of the protein cyclin E.

Dr. Khandan Keyomarsi is the principal author of the paper titled, "Cyclin E, a Potential Prognostic Marker in Breast Cancer," which outlines a potential method to detect the cancer in the early stages.

Cyclin E is a protein directly involved in the regulation of cell proliferation. It is necessary in order for cells to divide, and is crucial to the rapid division of tumor cells.

Keyomarsi investigated tissue samples from end-stage cancer patients observed two trends.

First, the levels of cyclin E are much higher in the tumor cells than in normal cells. Second, as the disease progresses, the cyclin E molecules are altered chemically to a greater extent.

"This is encouraging because it gives us very different pictures of normal cells and tumor cells," said Keyomarsi.

This research is especially significant because to date, there is no way to detect the disease in its early stages, when it is easiest to cure.

The mammogram remains the best method of detection, but Keyomarsi's research may lead to a method which will detect the disease well before a mammogram can.

"Our work has a very high potential for clinical use," she said.

Keyomarsi also conducted research on other cancers such as lung, pancreas, colon, stomach, kidney, prostate, ovary and uterus.

"We got very similar for all the different cancers," she said. "In each sample we tested, the cyclin E was more abundant in the tumor cells than it is regularly. In addition, it was altered more in the advanced stages than in the early stages."

This success over a broad variety of cancers makes the method of cyclin E detection especially promising.

Keyomarsi also tested her methods on blood samples drawn from patients with leukemia. Again, the results were similar.

"I'm very excited about the results," she said. "First we observed these trends with invitro samples. But now we have bridged the gap between in-vitro and in-vivo samples."

The impact of Keyomarsi's work has yet to be seen. But with the number of American women being diagnosed with breast cancer on the rise, this research offers a potentially invaluable method of detection in the early stages.