JCI online early table of contents: De...(ocytic leukemia patients AUTHOR CONT...),Health

AUTHOR CONTACT: Diane F. Jelinek
Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota, USA.
Phone: (507) 284-5617; Fax: (507) 266-0981; E-mail: jelinek.diane@mayo.edu.

MEDIA CONTACT: Elizabeth Zimmermann
Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, Rochester, Minnesota, USA.
Phone: (507) 266-0810; Media (507) 284-5005; E-mail: zimmerman.elizabeth@mayo.edu

View the PDF of this article at: https://www.the-jci.org/article.php?id=32625

ONCOLOGY: The molecule GPC1 facilitates tumor metastasis

The prognosis for individuals diagnosed with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is poor, largely because diagnosis often comes after the tumor has spread to other tissues (metastasized). New data generated by Murray Korc and colleagues at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, has established a role for the molecule GPC1 in driving the growth, metastasis, and angiogenesis (the growth of new blood vessels, something that is essential for a tumor to grow) of human pancreatic cancer cell lines. These data led the authors to suggest that targeting GPC1 might provide a new approach to treating individuals with PDAC.

In the study, human pancreatic cancer cell lines in which expression of GPC1 was downregulated showed reduced tumor growth, metastasis, and angiogenesis when transplanted into immunocompromised mice. A role for host GPC1 was also established, as human pancreatic cancer cell lines expressing normal levels of GPC1 showed decreased tumor growth, metastasis, and angiogenesis when transplanted into immunocompromised mice lacking GPC1. In addition, fewer metastases were detected following the transplantation of a mouse skin cancer cell line into immunocompromised mice lacking GPC1, indicating that the importance of GPC1 to
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