Purpose: Breast cancer (BC) brain metastasis (BrM) remains a significant clinical problem. Mucins have been implicated in metastasis; however, if they are also involved in BCBrM remains unknown. We queried BrM patient databases and found Mucin 5AC (MUC5AC) to be upregulated and therefore sought to define the role of MUC5AC in BCBrM.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Brain metastases occur in up to one-third of patients with breast cancer. aromatase, a marker for estrogen activity that has been shown to promote such metastasis, heavily concentrates in certain midline structures of brain. We hypothesize that breast cancer metastasizes more often to brain areas with higher aromatase activity and that these patients have a higher risk of developing obstructive hydrocephalus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Brain edema is a common complication of brain metastases (BM) and associated treatment. The extent to which cytotoxic edema, the first step in the sequence that leads to ionic edema, vasogenic edema, and brain swelling, contributes to radiation-induced brain edema during BM remains unknown. This study aimed to determine whether radiation-associated treatment of BM induces cytotoxic edema and the consequences of blocking the edema in preclinical models of breast-cancer brain metastases (BCBM).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Brain edema is a common complication of brain metastases (BM) and associated treatment. The extent to which cytotoxic edema, the first step in the sequence that leads to ionic edema, vasogenic edema and brain swelling, contributes to radiation-induced brain edema during BM remains unknown. This study aimed to determine whether radiation-associated treatment of BM induces cytotoxic edema and the consequences of blocking the edema in pre-clinical models of breast cancer brain metastases (BCBM).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: The survival of women with brain metastases (BM) from breast cancer remains very poor, with over 80% dying within a year of their diagnosis. Here, we define the function of IL13Rα2 in outgrowth of breast cancer brain metastases (BCBM) and , and postulate IL13Rα2 as a suitable therapeutic target for BM.
Experimental Design: We performed IHC staining of IL13Rα2 in BCBM to define its prognostic value.