Abstract A70: Akt2 gain or Akt1 loss drives invasion and aggressiveness in breast cancer

Despite the improvement in the early diagnosis and the use of modern therapies, breast cancer is the second cause of death, after lung cancer, in women around the world, and this is mainly due to metastasis development distant organs.PI3K/Akt pathway is deregulated in almost 50% of breast carcinomas, and is associated to therapy resistance. Currently, there are increasing clinical trials that combine endocrine treatments with PI3K/Akt inhibitors to delay tumor resistance and to avoid tumor progression. However, these inhibitors do not distinguish between the isoform specific function of Akt1, Akt2 and Akt3. Several evidences in different models of cancer show that Akt1 and Akt2 are expressed in different stages of cancer progression, with Akt1 involved in tumor proliferation during the first steps of the carcinogenic process, and Akt2 involved in the invasive phenotype. The aim of this work was to study Akt1 and Akt2 isoforms, focusing on their particular role in cell migration and invasion in human breast tumor samples and in two human breast cancer cell lines.Tissue microarray analysis in a small cohort of human advanced breast cancer samples showed a positive association between invasive grade, Akt2 expression and E-cadherin loss. Interestingly, E-cadherin presents a heterogeneous staining in each sample, being weaker in the more invasive areas and stronger in the non-invasive areas.To understand the specific role of each isoform of Akt on tumor phenotype, T47D and IBH-6 h...
Source: Molecular Cancer Research - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: Other Topics: Poster Presentations - Proffered Abstracts Source Type: research