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Marker found for breast, ovarian cancers

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United Press International

Monday, October 25, 2004

HOUSTON, Oct 25, 2004 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- University of Texas researchers have found a potential new protein indicator for prognosis of breast and ovarian cancer.

The marker is known as Rab25, and when researchers matched tumor samples to outcomes in about 100 patients diagnosed with either breast or ovarian cancer, they found a low level of Rab25 protein on a patient's cancer sample was associated with a better clinical outcome in both cancer types.

In the November, 2004 issue of the journal Nature Medicine, the researchers reported tumor cells that "over-express" the Rab25 protein are more aggressive and associated with poorer outcome.

Adding this protein to other known molecular markers of progression could contribute to a "highly predictive test of outcome in breast or ovarian cancer," said the study's lead investigator, Dr. Gordon Mills, a professor and chair of the Department of Molecular Therapeutics at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.



Copyright 2004 by United Press International.

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