Oncology Abstracts

Introduction: The process of Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) involves the transition of cells from a differentiated epithelial phenotype to a less differentiated mesenchymal phenotype. Mammographic breast density (MBD) refers to the proportion of high opacity area on a mammogram. EMT may be triggered in cancer cells by a range of therapies including cytotoxic chemotherapy, with cell line and animal suggesting chemoresistance may result. High MBD in patients being treat...

Mammographic density (MD) is an independent risk factor for breast cancer, however what molecule or pathway within MD tissue contributes to this risk? High MD is characterized by an abundance of connective tissue stroma which is rich in heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs). Of these, SDC1 and SDC4 are upregulated in breast cancer, and we have observed a significantly higher abundance of these proteins in high vs low MD pair-wise comparisons from breast tissue from 8 individua...