Breast cancer gene fingerprint find

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By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
Last Updated: 10:01pm BST 21/04/2008

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The short term use of this discovery will be in diagnostic tests but the team also found that the pattern is controlled by a single gene called bromodomain 4 (Brd4) and by inserting this gene they could suppress tumour growth and metastasis in studies of mice, suggesting that a drug to mimic this effect could help treat the disease.

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Normal Brd4 activity is involved in important cell processes including cell proliferation and DNA replication. Defects in these processes are well documented in human breast cancer and the new findings indicates that activation of Brd4 reduces tumour growth by influencing the response of tumour cells to signals from the area immediately surrounding the tumour.

Taking the knowledge gained from the mouse studies, Dr Hunter's team identified a set of 379 genes in humans that are similar and found that the level of activation of Brd4 within a tumour was an important determinant of relapse and survival. Brd4 seemed to drive the use of many of the genes present in the signature.

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"The results of this study and other work in our laboratory suggests that people with inherited differences in Brd4 and the proteins that it induces have a genetic predisposition for developing cancer metastasis," he adds. "A better understanding of this gene may lead to improved methods of diagnosing and treating cancer."

As for when a test could be available, he said that depended on the outcome of more research to establish how often this gene plays a central role in spreading. In the longer term, it may lead to drugs too, but he says much work has to be done to identify those with the right action: "We are currently unaware of any drugs that mimic Brd4."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/04/21/scicanc121.xml