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Query: UMLS:C0027627 (metastases)
 103,950 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Lung cancer arises after a series of morphological changes, which take several years to progress from normal epithelium to invasive cancer. The morphological changes progress from hyperplasia, to metaplasia, to dysplasia, to carcinoma in situ, to invasive cancer and finally to metastatic cancer. Multiple molecular changes have been documented in lung cancers, both small cell (SCLC) and non-small cell (NSCLC) types. The number of changes has been estimated to be in double digits. These changes include activation of dominant oncogenes myc family, (K-ras and neu genes), as well as loss of recessive growth regulatory genes or anti-oncogenes (p53, and RB as well as unidentified gene or genes on chromosome 3). However, cytogenetic and molecular genetic studies indicate that multiple other specific sites of actual or potential DNA loss may be present in lung cancers. Other changes may include development of drug resistance, and production of growth factors and their receptors. It is tempting to associate specific molecular changes with specific morphological changes, as has been attempted in the colon. However, because of the difficulties in serially sampling the respiratory tract, such studies have not been performed to date. Documentation of molecular changes in premalignant lesions and prospective studies of their prognostic effects will be necessary for the design of rational chemoprevention trials.
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PMID:The molecular biology of lung cancer. 130 9

Four murine cellular tumor models expressing various combinations of oncogenes (SV40 large T and v-Ha-ras, SV40 large T and v-src, SV40 large T and neu, adenovirus EIA and v-Ha-ras) induce sarcoma when they are inoculated s.c. into the DBA/2 syngenic mice. The metastatic patterns, distribution and fate of these tumor cells transplanted by two different routes into syngenic DBA/2 mice have been studied. All the tumor cell lines except EIA-ras, induce massive overt artificial metastases principally in the lung after i.v. injection. In s.c. tumor-bearing mice, a few resting cells colonize the lung as micrometastases. When removed from this tissue context and injected s.c. these cells regain their proliferative potential and grow as local tumors which again give rise to occult pulmonary micrometastases.
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PMID:Metastatic phenotype of murine tumor cells expressing different cooperating oncogenes. 131 11

The expression of the protooncogene encoded proteins (c-erbB1, c-erb B2, c-myc, c-fos) and the suppressor gene product p53 was analyzed in 81 human squamous cell carcinomas of the lung and correlated with clinical parameters of the patients (patient survival, presence of metastases and tumor stage) and with biological characteristics of the tumors (tumor growth in nude mice, DNA-ploidy, proliferative activity, drug-resistance and P-glycoprotein or gluathione S-transferase expression). By means of immunohistochemistry, expression of c-erbB1 oncoprotein (EGF-receptor) was detected in 79% of the tumors, c-erbB2 (c-neu) proteins in 35%, c-myc proteins in 48%, c-fos proteins in 41%, and p53 in 43% of the tumors. Patients with c-erbB1 positive tumors had a poor prognosis (p = 0.021). In addition, these tumors were more frequently drug resistant (p = 0.0067). A significant correlation between the growth of the squamous lung carcinomas in nude mice and c-fos oncoprotein expression was demonstrated (p = 0.017). Therefore, EGF-receptor and c-fos products may serve as prognostic factors for the aggressiveness of squamous cell carcinomas of the lung and for the response of these tumors to chemotherapy. No significant correlation was found between the expression of the c-erbB1 or c-fos gene products and stage, metastasis and DNA-ploidy. In contrast to these results, no relationship was found between c-neu or c-myc gene products expression and any of the clinical or biological parameters examined. Aneuploid squamous cell carcinomas of the lung expressed p53 more frequently than diploid tumors (p = 0.027). However, there was no significant difference between p53 expression and stage, survival of patients, metastasis, growth of the tumors in nude mice, proliferative activity and drug-resistance of the tumors.
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PMID:Oncoprotein (c-myc, c-erbB1, c-erbB2, c-fos) and suppressor gene product (p53) expression in squamous cell carcinomas of the lung. Clinical and biological correlations. 134 20

c-erbB2/neu is a transforming oncogene that encodes a 185-kDa transmembrane glycoprotein. In many but not all studies, amplification and/or overexpression of the human c-erbB2/neu oncogene has been correlated with poor prognosis and the number of lymph node metastases in node-positive breast cancer patients. We have shown that expression of the activated rat c-erbB2/neu oncogene in mouse embryo fibroblast 3T3 cells is sufficient to induce experimental metastases in nude mice. Important steps in the metastatic event are tumor cell adhesion to endothelial cells and invasion of basement membranes. Therefore, we further examined the ability of c-erbB2/neu oncogene-transformed 3T3 cells to adhere to microvessel endothelial cells and secrete basement membrane-degradative enzymes. The c-erbB2/neu oncogene-transformed 3T3 cells were shown to be more adherent and have higher gelatinase activities. Since we had previously shown that the adenovirus 5 E1A gene product can suppress c-erbB2/neu-induced transformation of 3T3 cells, we examined the possibility that E1A can abrogate the metastatic properties of c-erbB2/neu-transformed 3T3 cells. We found that introduction of the E1A gene into c-erbB2/neu-transformed 3T3 cells reduced the formation of experimental metastatic tumors and inhibited metastasis-associated properties, such as adhesion to microvessel endothelial cells, migration through a layer of reconstituted basement membrane (Matrigel) and secretion of basement membrane-degradative enzymes. The results indicate that the mechanism by which the c-erbB2/neu gene induces higher metastatic potential is to promote adhesion and invasion steps of the metastatic cascade. The E1A gene, which functions by inhibiting these steps, is thus a suppressor gene for c-erbB2/neu-induced experimental metastasis.
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PMID:Mechanisms of c-erbB2/neu oncogene-induced metastasis and repression of metastatic properties by adenovirus 5 E1A gene products. 135 95

Overexpression and amplification of the neu (c-erbB2, ERBB2) protooncogene have been implicated in the development of aggressive human breast cancer. To directly assess the effect of mammary gland-specific expression of the neu protooncogene, transgenic mice carrying unactivated neu under the transcriptional control of the mouse mammary tumor virus promoter/enhancer were established. By contrast to the rapid tumor progression observed in several transgenic strains carrying the activated neu transgene, expression of unactivated neu in the mammary epithelium resulted in the development of focal mammary tumors after long latency. The majority of the mammary tumors analyzed expressed elevated levels of neu-encoded mRNA and protein. Overexpression of neu in the mammary tumors was also associated with elevated neu intrinsic tyrosine kinase activity and the de novo tyrosine phosphorylation of several cellular proteins. Interestingly, many of the tumor-bearing transgenic mice developed secondary metastatic tumors in the lung. These observations suggest that overexpression of the unactivated neu protein can induce metastatic disease after long latency.
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PMID:Expression of the neu protooncogene in the mammary epithelium of transgenic mice induces metastatic disease. 135 41

Breast cancer is the most common malignant tumor among women, comprising an estimated 24% of all cancer cases and 18% of all cancer deaths. At least half of the patients with primary breast cancer will ultimately die by metastatic disease. The tumor characteristics, the natural course of the disease and the response to therapy vary strongly. A number of recently detected cell biological parameters such as oncogenes/suppressor genes, growth factors and secretory proteins are more or less important prognostic factors, because they influence the characteristics and behavior of a tumor with respect to metastatic pattern, extent of cellular differentiation, growth rate and response to treatment. However, there is no clear consensus how best to identify patients at high or low risk. In our experience c-myc amplification and pS2 protein are strong prognosticators for relapse rate, while in advanced disease (apart from a negative estrogen/progesterone receptor/pS2 status) amplification of HER2/neu is a good prognosticator for failure to endocrine therapy. In the diagnosis of breast cancer, in vivo imaging of tumors by labeled hormones or other factors also forms a new development which might have implications for treatment too. With respect to treatment both endocrine and chemotherapy can cure a minority of patients with micrometastases, but in patients with advanced disease only a prolongation of (progression-free) survival can be reached. Response rates decrease with increasing tumor load. In the past decade a number of interesting new endocrine agents has been developed such as new (pure) (anti)steroidal agents, vitamins, aromatase inhibitors, analogs of peptide hormones, prolactin inhibitors and growth factor antagonists. However, less is known on the (potential) interaction between hormones, chemotherapeutic agents, retinoids, cytokins, growth factor antagonists and irradiation. Rapid detection of new powerful combination therapies are needed to improve treatment results during the nineties.
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PMID:Clinical breast cancer, new developments in selection and endocrine treatment of patients. 144 97

The rat neu gene is known to be activated by a point mutation in its predicted transmembrane domain. Overexpression of the human homologue of neu, the c-erbB-2 gene, in human lung cancer has been reported, and a similar activating point mutation has been suggested. Therefore, we tested for possible aberrations of the c-erbB-2 gene in the region of the transmembrane domain in surgical specimens of human primary lung cancer from 190 patients, and also examined 24 metastases and 26 specimens of noncancerous portions of the lung of the same patients. Single-strand conformation polymorphism analysis of polymerase chain reaction products revealed no point mutations in the target domain in any of these specimens.
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PMID:Absence of activating mutations in the transmembrane domain of the c-erbB-2 protooncogene in human lung cancer. 148 46

Normal tissues, primary tumors, and metastases of mammary and salivary glands and oral/laryngeal mucosa have been analyzed with Northern-blots employing 32P-labeled RNA probes for the expression of the neu oncogene. Neu oncogene expression of a mRNA species of 4.6 kilobases was found in all normal salivary (five) and mammary glands (four) as well as in two normal or inflamed samples of tongue mucosa. This expression was regarded as baseline activity of the neu gene for the respective tissues and was used as standard for the evaluation of benign and malignant tumors. None of 14 squamous cell carcinomas of the oral and laryngeal mucosa showed enhanced neu transcription level. Five fibroadenomas, one benign variant of phylloid tumor, one carcinosarcoma, and one of two proliferative fibrocystic diseases of the breast showed lacking or normal baseline expression of the neu oncogene, as did one monomorphous cystadenolymphoma of the parotid gland. In contrast, four parotid pleomorphic adenomas and one salivary gland adenocarcinoma showed enhanced neu expression. For mammary adenocarcinomas, increased neu oncogene expression concerned ten of 34 cases--all being variants of ductal carcinomas--and all metastases analyzed (six) deriving from three primaries. One adenoid cystic carcinoma also showed enhanced neu expression. Neu overexpression may reflect accidents of genomic reconstitutional events occurring regularly within the differentiation pathway of epithelial/myoepithelial cells. This assumption was supported by further immunohistochemical analysis which showed stainings of myoepithelial and myoepithelia-like cell populations in tumors, especially pleomorphic adenomas and adjacent normal-looking tissues.
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PMID:Comparative investigation of c-erbB2/neu expression in head and neck tumors and mammary cancer. 167 62

Amplification or overexpression of the human neu oncogene has been shown to correlate with the number of lymph node metastases in breast cancer patients, suggesting that expression of the neu oncogene may be associated with increased metastatic potential. However, there has been no systematic study on the role of the neu oncogene in metastasis to support this correlation. In our study, mouse embryo fibroblast 3T3 cells transformed by the mutation-activated rat neu oncogene exhibited metastatic properties both in vitro and in vivo, while parental 3T3 cells did not. Monoclonal antibodies capable of inducing down-regulation of the neu-encoded p185 protein reduced the metastatic potential induced by neu. These data provide strong experimental evidence that neu oncogene expression is sufficient for the induction of metastasis in the 3T3 cell system and supply a molecular basis supporting the correlations found in clinical observation. The results also suggest that neu-specific monoclonal antibodies may have preventative or therapeutic potential for neu-induced metastasis.
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PMID:Expression of activated rat neu oncogene is sufficient to induce experimental metastasis in 3T3 cells. 168 65

Fifty patients with typical infiltrating ductal adenocarcinoma of the breast were studied for amplification of the c-erb B-2 (neu/HER-2) oncogene within the tumor DNA. Amplification, ranging from 4 to greater than 50 copies per cell, was observed in 17 (34%) of the samples. The presence of c-erb B-2 gene amplification was not significantly correlated with patient survival, metastases, recurrence, or overall histologic grade. However, amplification was significantly associated with increased mitotic activity. Also, amplification of c-erb B-2 showed a significantly negative association with both progesterone and estrogen receptor presence. Progesterone receptor presence correlated significantly with survival.
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PMID:Amplification of the c-erb B-2 oncogene and prognosis of breast adenocarcinoma. 196 29


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