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Our research...

TOPIC 1

Detection of angiogenic cytokines in serum and plasma of patients with breast cancer
Tumour growth is dependent on angiogenesis, which is induced by the production of angiogenic cytokines such as the vascular endothelial growth factor and the basic fibroblast growth factor. This studies aims to investigate the correlations of serum and plasma levels of angiogenic cytokines and clinico-pathological parameters in patients with breast cancer.
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TOPIC 2

Detection of minimal disease in blood and bone marrow of patients with breast cancer
The development of distant metastases is the primary cause of death in patients with breast cancer. Advances in the development of immunocytochemical and molecular assays now enable the detection of metastatic cells even at a single cell stage and thus carry the promise to positively identify those patients with early microscopic distant dissemination.
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TOPIC 3

Histomorphometrical and quantitative molecular comparison of the first steps of metastasis of the primary tumour and loco-regional and distant metastases in breast cancer
The purpose of this project is to study different aspects of and processes involved in these very first steps of breast cancer metastasis in the primary tumour and compare them to loco-regional axillary lymph node metastases and distant metastases (e.g. liver) in patients with breast cancer.
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TOPIC 4

Distinct molecular signature of inflammatory breast cancer by cDNA microarray analysis
Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is a distinct and aggressive form of locally advanced breast cancer with largely unknown genetic determinants. The identification of new diagnostic and predictive factors and of new therapeutic targets might improve disease outcome. We used cDNA microarrays to perform a genome-wide expression profiling of IBC.
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TOPIC 5

Identification of cell-of-origin breast tumour subtypes in inflammatory breast cancer
Perou et al. (Nature 2000) described a cell-of-origin classifier, based on the expression of approximately 500 genes. Their set of breast specimen fell apart in 5 clusters: Luminal A, Luminal B, Basal-like cluster, ErbB2-overexpressing cluster and a Normal-like cluster (cell-of-origin subtypes). We investigated the presence of the different cell-of-origin subtypes in IBC.
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TOPIC 6

DNA methylation profile of inflammatory breast tumours
Hypermethylation of gene promoters is a common mechanism of loss of gene function in cancer cells. Thus far, no data on epigenetic alterations in human IBC are available. Microarray studies have shown that IBC is characterised by a distinct gene expression pattern when compared to non-IBC. In this study, we sought to determine whether the profiles of gene hypermethylation differ between IBC and non-IBC.
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TOPIC 7

The AKT/mTOR/p70S6K1 pathway in human epithelial ovarian cancer
The AKT/mTOR/p70S6K1 pathway is hyperactive in a majority of ovarian tumours (Altomare et al. 2004). The pathway is associated with increased protein translation, enhanced angiogenesis, cell cycle regulation and proliferation. The object of this project at the TCRG-Antwerp laboratory is to study this pathway in human epithelial ovarian cancer.
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