From epithelial cell to tumour cell

Abstract

A team of scientists led by Brian Elenbaas (Whitehead Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA) has successfully transformed primary human breast epithelial cells, isolated from reduction mammoplasty tissue, to tumorigenicity by introducing a limited set of oncogenes. Senior author Robert Weinberg (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA) says, “This work makes it possible to define with precision the number of genetic and biochemical changes that are required to convert normal human breast epithelial cells into carcinoma cells”. Genetic analyses of patients with breast cancer has revealed a number of different genes with a high rate of mutation. While mutations in the P53 tumour suppressor gene occur in more than half of all breast cancers – and breast carcinoma cells commonly have abnormalities in the RAS signaling pathway – no individual mutation is involved in all human breast cancers. The number of mutant genes that coexist in the genome of a naturally arising breast cancer is not yet known.