Lisa Rydén

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in females with a favourable short-term prognosis. However, half of the relapses occur after more than five years contributing to the fact that breast cancer is one of the leading causes of death in middle aged women. Death from breast cancer is caused by distant metastasis and the understanding of metastatic spread is therefore of importance. The focus of the research program is further understanding of the two routes for metastatic spread; hematogenous and lymphatic by molecular characterization of disseminated tumor cells in lymph nodes, peripheral blood, bone marrow and distant metastasis in breast cancer.

We have shown that lymph node metastases show signs of tumor progression compared to the primary tumor and that prognosis seems to follow the inherence of the node. We will continue these studies by more comprehensive molecular analysis focusing on proteins related to epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) in lymph node metastasis.

Cancer cells in the blood are referred to as circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and detection of CTCs in the circulation is a sign of the invasive capacity of cancer. The gold standard for detection and enumeration of CTCs is the CellSearch®-system (Janssen Diagnostics) and detection of CTCs is a validated prognostic marker in several forms of cancer and we function as a referral lab. In a prospective trial of metastatic breast cancer (CTC-MBC) we collect serial blood samples for enumeration and molecular characterization of CTCs and serum and plasma, collectively referred to as “liquid biopsy” (Clincical Trials NCT01322893) . An in-house method for downstream characterization of CTCs has been established enabling real-time analysis of routine markers such as ER and HER2.