Direct Evidence for Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transitions in Breast Cancer

TLDR

The study developed stromal‑ and epithelial‑specific cre‑transgenic mice to directly visualize epithelial‑mesenchymal transition during breast cancer progression in vivo. The authors used three oncogene‑driven mouse mammary tumor models with cell‑fate mapping and hierarchical clustering of genome‑wide loss of heterozygosity to trace EMT and its link to MYC. They provided first direct evidence that EMT occurs in breast cancer, is induced by MYC, and is rare but associated with MYC amplification in invasive tumors. Cancer Res 2008;68(3):937–45.

Abstract

Abstract We developed stromal- and epithelial-specific cre-transgenic mice to directly visualize epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) during cancer progression in vivo. Using three different oncogene-driven mouse mammary tumor models and cell-fate mapping strategies, we show in vivo evidence for the existence of EMT in breast cancer and show that myc can specifically elicit this process. Hierarchical cluster analysis of genome-wide loss of heterozygosity reveals that the incidence of EMT in invasive human breast carcinomas is rare, but when it occurs it is associated with the amplification of MYC. These data provide the first direct evidence for EMT in breast cancer and suggest that its development is favored by myc-initiated events. [Cancer Res 2008;68(3):937–45]