Breast Cancer Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Breast Cancer, including details on symptoms, genetics, screening, treatment, information.

Breast cancer metastasis: markers and models.

Weigelt B, Peterse JL, van 't Veer LJ

Division of Experimental Therapy, The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Breast cancer starts as a local disease, but it can metastasize to the lymph nodes and distant organs. At primary diagnosis, prognostic markers are used to assess whether the transition to systemic disease is likely to have occurred. The prevailing model of metastasis reflects this view--it suggests that metastatic capacity is a late, acquired event in tumorigenesis. Others have proposed the idea that breast cancer is intrinsically a systemic disease. New molecular technologies, such as DNA microarrays, support the idea that metastatic capacity might be an inherent feature of breast tumours. These data have important implications for prognosis prediction and our understanding of metastasis.

Published 1 August 2005 in Nat Rev Cancer, 5(8): 591-602.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Breast Cancer Research Today. All Rights Reserved.