Researchers have identified new molecular markers—microribonucleic acids (RNAs)—that, combined with their target genes, are believed to be able to identify which breast cancer will metastasize to the brain. “Survival rates are low once breast cancer metastasized to the brain,” said Seema Sethi, MD, lead investigator of a study presented at the 2013 American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) annual meeting, and a resident at Wayne State University and Detroit Medical Center. This discovery is a new step in the evolving field of personalized medicine.
Dr Sethi and her team believe that the RNAs and their target genes could identify at the initial diagnosis of breast cancer whether the tumor will metastasize to the brain or not, which would guide the course of therapy early on and could lead to new preventive therapies. The researchers found that several microRNAs were significantly mutated in patients whose cancer had spread to the brain, as well as several target genes that were involved in this process. ASCP annual meeting; Chicago; September 20, 2013
