Journal of the National Cancer Institute Advance Access originally published online on July 29, 2008
JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute 2008 100(15):1054-1057; doi:10.1093/jnci/djn283
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© Oxford University Press 2008.
NEWS |
As Metastasis Yields its Biological Secrets, Researchers Hope To Apply Findings
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When Patricia Steeg, Ph.D., showed last year that women whose breast cancers overexpress the HER2 gene had substantial rates of cancer that spread to the brain, she knew she had found what she called "the perfect storm": Women with this form of metastatic breast cancer were becoming victims of scientists’ success.
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According to Steeg, who is chief of the women's cancer section at the laboratory of molecular pharmacology at the National Cancer Institute, about a third of women with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer are developing metastases to the brain. Not long ago, brain metastasis was not a particular concern, she noted, because it occurred in only about 15% of metastatic breast cancers and usually near the time of death. Most women died before the cancer took hold there. But because clinicians are doing a better job of controlling the disease systemically, particularly with the advent of
Understanding Metastasis Biology
Strategies Differ; Questions Remain