Methods for predicting the behaviour of breast tumours

摘要

The estrogen-regulated gene sequence pLIV1 has been discovered and isolated, and found to be significantly associated with the metastatic spread of breast cancer cells to the regional lymph nodes. Methods are therefore provided for determining the risk of metastasis of a female breast tumour, as well as for predicting the responsiveness to endocrine treatment of a female breast tumour, which involve determining whether a tissue sample from a tumour expresses a polypeptide containing the pLIV1 gene sequence, or a substantial portion thereof.