Identification of breast cancer metastasis-associated genes by chip technology.

In order to identify genes associated with metastasis of mammary carcinoma, we compared the transcriptional profile (Affymetrix chip technology) of two cell lines derived from primary mammary carcinoma, three cell lines derived from bone marrow micrometastasis, a cell line derived from a lymph node metastasis as well as a cell line derived from malignant ascites. We found that 11 genes (0.16%) were up-regulated in all five cell lines derived from metastasis and 32 genes (0.45%) were up-regulated in four of these cell lines. Sixteen genes (0.23%) were down-regulated in the five metastatic cell lines, while 24 genes (0.34%) were down-regulated in four of the metastatic cell lines. The usefulness of our system for the identification of genes associated with metastasis of mammary carcinoma is demonstrated by the identification of genes which have already been implicated in metastasis of mammary carcinoma. This suggests that further evaluation of identified de-regulated genes, which until now have not been seen in context with metastasis of mammary carcinoma, should be undertaken.