{"455591":{"#nid":"455591","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Predictive Model Could Help Guide Choices for Breast Cancer Therapies","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBiomedical engineers have demonstrated a proof-of-principle technique that could give women and their oncologists more personalized information to help them choose options for treating breast cancer.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThanks to diagnostic tests, clinicians and patients can already know the type of breast cancer they\u2019re up against, but one big question remains: How likely is it that the cancer will invade other parts of the body? Answering that question could help guide the choice of treatment options, from aggressive and difficult therapies to more conservative ones.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBy studying chemical signals from specific cells that are involved in helping cancer invade other tissues in each woman\u2019s body, researchers have developed a predictive model that could provide an invasiveness index for each patient.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe want women to have more information to make a personal decision beyond the averages calculated for an entire population,\u201d said \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.bme.gatech.edu\/bme\/faculty\/Manu-O-Platt\u0022\u003EManu Platt\u003C\/a\u003E, an associate professor in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.bme.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EDepartment of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University\u003C\/a\u003E. \u201cWe are using our systems biology tools and predictive medicine approaches to look at potential markers we could use to help us understand the risk each woman has. This would provide information for a more educated discussion of treatment options.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe research, sponsored with funds from the Georgia Research Alliance and the Giglio family donation to the Department of Biomedical Engineering, was reported September 9 in the journal Scientific Reports. Beyond breast cancer, the technique could offer similar decision-making assistance for men with prostate cancer, where treatment also requires making difficult choices about the risk of metastasis.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPlatt\u2019s research team is examining chemical signals produced by the macrophages that can help aggressive tumors invade new tissues. Macrophages normally clean up foreign particles and harmful microorganisms in the body, but aggressive tumors can enlist macrophages in helping them metastasize. Tumor associated macrophages contribute significantly to tumor invasion, with cysteine cathepsin proteases \u2013 enzymes that break down proteins in the body \u2013 important contributors.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo develop their predictive index, Platt\u2019s research team used variability in macrophage expression of four types of cathepsin, the cathepsin inhibitor cystatin C, and kinase activation levels. The model, which has been under development for two years, was produced by studying macrophages from a population of women who didn\u2019t have breast cancer. Platt and colleagues Keon-Young Park and Gande Li co-cultured a standard breast cancer cell line (MCF-7) with macrophages produced from monocytes donated by these cancer-free women.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENext, they measured the level of invasiveness facilitated by macrophages from each individual donor, exposing the cancer cells and macrophages to a collagen gel designed to simulate breast tissue and measuring how many cells invaded it. While the breast is composed of many other tissues, collagen makes up the largest proportion and provided a good measure of how aggressively the cells would invade, Platt said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPlatt\u2019s team correlated the level of invasion through the gel to the chemical signals being expressed by the macrophages. The researchers were surprised at the large amount of patient-to-patient variability in macrophage activity \u2013 variability that could account for the outcome differences in the patients receiving similar cancer treatments. The signaling levels and related invasion measurements were used to train a computational model developed by Platt\u2019s team.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers next obtained blood samples containing monocytes from nine patients being treated for breast cancer at DeKalb Medical Center, a major Atlanta-area hospital. They measured signals from these macrophages and used their model \u2013 which had been trained on macrophage signaling and resulting invasiveness \u2013 to predict which of the cancer patients would be expected to have more invasive types of cancer. They compared their predications to what the clinician \u2013 Dr. John Kennedy \u2013 provided as their initial diagnosis.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cBased on the cells we got from the clinic, the ones that had been predicted to have the greatest potential for invasion were the ones that had produced the most invasive form of breast cancer in the patients,\u201d Platt said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile the study could not account for possible differences in the length of time the cancers had been growing, they did correlate well with observations. In future research, Platt hopes to follow the women for five years to determine if the model\u2019s predictions are related to cancer recurrence. He also plans to expand the model with additional macrophage data, and test it against additional blood samples.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe more information you give the model, the closer you get to the prediction,\u201d he said. \u201cWe think this is a very big start.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe strength of this technique, Platt believes, is that it measures what\u2019s happening at the level where cancer is metastasizing.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe are measuring at the level of activity of these intracellular enzymes and the ultimate activity of the proteases they produce that are not only the biomarkers of the tumor, but also help the tumor grow,\u201d he said. \u201cEverything about us is different. Our genetics are different and our lifestyles are different, so clinicians have to make decisions in all that variability. All of those differences can be measured and captured in this output.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPlatt believes the technique could one day lead to a simple blood test that would provide information useful in making therapy recommendations. The test might also help determine which women should be monitored more closely to detect the beginnings of a cancer.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cTogether, this establishes proof-of-principle that personalized information acquired from minimally invasive blood draws may provide useful information to inform oncologists and patients of invasive\/metastatic risk, helping to make decisions regard radical mastectomy or milder, conservative treatments to save patients from hardship and surgical recovery,\u201d he wrote in the paper.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECITATION\u003C\/strong\u003E: Keon-Young Park, Gande Li and Manu O. Platt, \u0022Monocyte-derived macrophage assisted breasat cancer cell invasion as a personalized, predictive metric to score metastatic risk,\u0022 (Scientific Reports 2015). \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1038\/srep13855\u0022\u003Ehttp:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1038\/srep13855\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EResearch News\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Institute of Technology\u003Cbr \/\u003E177 North Avenue\u003Cbr \/\u003EAtlanta, Georgia 30332-0181 USA\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMedia Relations Contact: John Toon (\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jtoon@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ejtoon@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E) (404-894-6986).\u003Cbr \/\u003EWriter: John Toon\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBiomedical engineers have demonstrated a proof-of-principle technique that could give women and their oncologists more personalized information to help them choose options for treating breast cancer.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"A new technique could give women and their oncologists more personalized information for choosing breast cancer treatment options."}],"uid":"27303","created_gmt":"2015-10-05 14:11:50","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:19:43","author":"John Toon","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-10-05T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2015-10-05T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"455541":{"id":"455541","type":"image","title":"Gels quantify cathepsin activity","body":null,"created":"1449256334","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 19:12:14","changed":"1475895199","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:53:19","alt":"Gels quantify cathepsin activity","file":{"fid":"203469","name":"breast-cancer1.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/breast-cancer1.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/breast-cancer1.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1113462,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/breast-cancer1.jpg?itok=4PI-PAew"}},"455551":{"id":"455551","type":"image","title":"Gels quantify cathepsin activity2","body":null,"created":"1449256334","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 19:12:14","changed":"1475895199","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:53:19","alt":"Gels quantify cathepsin activity2","file":{"fid":"203470","name":"breast-cancer2.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/breast-cancer2_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/breast-cancer2_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1287075,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/breast-cancer2_0.jpg?itok=O4jchhW9"}}},"media_ids":["455541","455551"],"groups":[{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"140","name":"Cancer Research"},{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"14455","name":"Breast Cancer"},{"id":"385","name":"cancer"},{"id":"143681","name":"invasiveness. monocyte"},{"id":"45251","name":"macrophage"},{"id":"10832","name":"Manu Platt"},{"id":"143701","name":"predictive"},{"id":"143691","name":"variability"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71891","name":"Health and Medicine"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJohn Toon\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EResearch News\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jtoon@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ejtoon@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E(404) 894-6986\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jtoon@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}