Presented By: Lana Awad and Sebastian Lukjan

Motivation of research, why they did what they did…  Understand steps that cancer cells take to spread.  Want to relate gene expression pattern with likelihood of metastasis- diagnostics  Ultimate goal is to find strategies to slow spread of tumor cells - therapeutics  Current methods to study cancer metastasis had limitations ile:Secondary_tumor_depos its_in_the_liver_from_a_pri mary_cancer_of_the_pancr eas.jpg#file

Analysis of Primary whole tumor Problem: average expression patterns in all diverse tumor cells and isn’t indicative of invading cells. Wang et al

Analysis of cells isolated from fixed tumor Problem: metastatic cells are identified by morphological characteristics in fixed tissue Wang et al

Analysis of metastases tumor Problem: Needs to be cell cultured and In vitro conditions may affect gene conditions differently than in vivo conditions Wang et al

Our Method, catching tumor cells red handed ….. while they are invading using chemotaxis  Chemotaxis toward blood vessels enhances metastasis  Growth Factor concentration gradient directs invasive cells to blood vessels  Tumor cells express more EGF receptors and respond to this gradient better

Their Method: In vivo Invasion Assay  Used chemotaxis Chemotaxis to blood vessels enhances metastasis  Used a microneedle with known chemo attractants for metastasis  Then used microarrays to study gene experssion patterns In particular looked for change in gene regulation with genes that affected motility

Paracrine Chemotaxis  Carcinoma cells (CC) produce CSF- 1 to drive Tumor Associated Macrophages (TAM) to blood vessel  TAM procedures EGF to direct CC towards the blood vessel Wang et al

Gene Expression Trends  mRNA levels for genes related to mobility affected  mRNA levels for genes related to cell polarity affected

A key Discrepancy in Cancer Models  Gene expression results indicate the possibility that metastasis can occur in early tumors  Lead to the questioning of current model of cancer

Hypothesis: Tumor Microenvironment Invasion Model Wang et al

Key Hypothesis Facets  Novel : Transient gene expression changes Metastasis can occur at earlier or later times Microenvironments play a direct role in cell invasion  Hypothesis still needs to be tested In situ hybridization

Significance to Cancer research  Potential therapeutic agents to prevent metastasis characterize behavior of metastatic tumors on the cellular level. Utilize this understanding to create better therapeutic agents

The End