Published in:
01-03-2000 | Meeting abstract
Expression of variant forms of the MUC1 gene correlates with the invasiveness of breast cancer cells
Authors:
R Zeillinger, B Schmid, D Tong, B Fasching, I Schiebl, M Stimpfl, A Obermair, S Leodolter
Published in:
Breast Cancer Research
|
Special Issue 1/2000
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Excerpt
The characterization of tumor markers is of prime importance in understanding the mechanisms underlying cancer initiation and progression. The most exclusively used marker for monitoring breast cancer patients are the protein products of the MUC1 gene, which is strongly overexpressed in breast cancer cells. The best characterized MUC1 gene product is MUC1/REP (episialin, PEM, CA15-3, MCA). It is important in reducing cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix interactions, probably being involved in the spread of cancer cells from the primary tumor. MUC1 overexpression was found to correlate with invasiveness. Four isoforms are generated by differential splicing due to the use of alternative splice acceptor sites for exon 1. These were designated variants A to D. A higher expression of variant A than of variant B was found to indicate thyroid papillary carcinomas. …
