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View the Table of Contents for the November 1 issue of Cancer Research.
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Lung cancer remains the most lethal type of human malignancy, with increased incidences occurring especially in women. Mah and coauthors describe novel findings about the prognostic value of aromatase expression in predicting the course of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This group demonstrated the importance of estrogen and aromatase for promoting tumor progression in a mouse model. They further conducted a population-based study examining aromatase levels in human NSCLC using tissue microarray technology. Lower levels of aromatase were a strong predictor of survival in women older than 65 years with earlier stage cancer. The authors predict that the use of aromatase inhibitors may benefit this patient population.
Harrell et al. Page 10582 Estrogen-responsive breast tumors often become refractory to antiestrogens and recur in organs distant from the primary site. To determine if the lymph node (LN) microenvironment alters tumor-cell sensitivity to estradiol, Harrell and colleagues developed a model to assess the hormone responsiveness of xenografted human breast tumors and their matched LN metastases. Laser-capture microdissection plus gene expression profiling confirmed by immunohistochemistry, found that LN metastases were estrogen insensitive compared to the primary tumors. Indeed, some genes were regulated by estradiol in the opposite direction in tumors and matched metastases. This study shows that the LN microenvironment influences expression of therapeutic targets that may alter cancer cell survival, recurrence, or response to treatments.
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