Operative Therapy and the Growth of Breast Cancer Micrometastases: Cause and Effect

摘要

To test the hypothesis that there are growth factors/cytokines released to promote healing of the wound created by the resection of a primary breast cancer which have the unintended consequence of enabling the growth of micrometastatic foci present at the time of operation. This study was designed as a feasibility study to test whether it is technically possible to reliably assay changes in the low molecular weight serum proteome. Human xenograft breast tumors were established in 9 of 12 nude mice. Blood samples were obtained from the mice immediately prior to extirpation of the primary breast cancer and then again 24 hours, 48 hours and 7 day post-operatively. In the analysis of the serum of 5 of the mice there were 8685 peptides quantified resulting in 5949 proteins. Of these 5949 proteins 155 were identified with high confidence and 11 proteins had significant changes among the time points as a function of time pre or post-op. One of these proteins is a splice variant of the Leukemia Inhibitory Factor. We have cloned three forms of this receptor, the full length, secretory and membrane forms.