Saint John's Spine Surgeon Uses ILIF Procedure To Treat Lumbar Spinal Stenosis
Only 37, Janie Lee had endured excruciating back pain for 20 years. She couldn"t stay in one position for more than five minutes, and walking hunched over was the only way she could get around. Her search for help took her to several doctors and an emergency room, but it wasn"t until she found Hyun Bae, M.D., a renowned spine specialist at Saint John"s Health Center in Santa Monica that she received the diagnosis and care that would return her life to her.
Endocrinology
Halting Advanced Metastatic Breast Cancer By Targeting MMPs
An upcoming G&D paper reveals how two specific matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) proteins contribute to bone metastasis in advanced breast cancer - lending important new insight into the design of clinically useful small molecule inhibitors. The study was led by Dr. Yibin Kang in Princeton University in close collaboration with Dr. Joan Massaguç© at MSKCC and Dr. Michael Reiss at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey. It will be published online ahead of print athttp:// www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.1824809. "More than 70% of late stage breast cancer patients have skeletal complications," explains Dr. Yibin Kang. "It is important to uncover molecular mechanism of bone metastasis in order to come up with better treatments to reduce the pain and suffering from bone metastasis." MMPs are a large class of related enzymatic proteins that degrade the extracellular matrix. Normal MMP activity is tightly regulated, and is necessary for a number of physiological processes, like tissue remodeling, angiogenesis, ovulation and wound healing. However, MMP dysregulation facilitates tumor metastasis. MMP1 and ADAMTS1 are two different MMP family members that were previously identified in a genomic screen for breast cancer bone metastasis genes. Dr. Kang and colleagues now show how alterations in MMP1 and ADAMTS1 expression promote bone metastasis. MMP1 and ADAMTS1 are upregulated in breast cancer cell lines with an enhanced ability to metastasize to bone. Dr. Kang and colleagues demonstrated that MMP1 and ADAMTS1 enzymatically cleave and release EGF-like growth factors from tumor cells to stimulate EGFR signaling in the bone-building osteoblasts. The researchers went on to show that such signaling reduces the production of OPG, a suppressor of the bone-resorbing osteoclasts, eventually leading to hyperactivity of osteoclasts, bone destruction and subsequent expansion of bone metastasis. Thus, this paper supports a rationale for the therapeutic targeting of MMP1 and ADAMTS1, and suggests that inhibition of EGFR signaling in bone stromal cells to block osteoclast activity may represent a viable method of mitigating bone complications in advanced metastatic breast cancers. Reference: ADAMTS1 and MMP1 proteolytically engage EGF-like ligands in an osteolytic signaling cascade for bone metastasis Xin Lu, Qiongqing Wang, Guohong Hu, Catherine Van Poznak, Martin Fleisher, Michael Reiss, Joan Massague, and Yibin Kang Heather Cosel-Pieper Cold Spring Harbor LaboratoryBreast Enhancement commented:
I personally recommend to read this post for the breast cancer. The article is informative and have cleared lot of issues that people faces.great piece of work.
10.05.2012