Gene Expression In Mice Can Predict Risk Of Skin Lesions Progressing To Cancer

Skin Lesions

Microarray technology, now makes it possible to more definitively identify skin lesions in mice that are thought to be at high risk of progressing to a type of cancer known as squamous cell carcinoma (SCC).

Microarray technology allows researchers to simultaneously compare the degree to which hundreds of genes are expressed (converted into proteins).

It is hoped that this technique will eventually lead to identification of high-risk SCC tumors in humans. This study appears in the online version of the journal Oncogene on May 21, 2007, and was conducted by researchers from the American University of Beirut (Lebanon), Pennsylvania State University, and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health.

Researchers compared the gene expression profiles of four different types of mouse skin cells: low-risk and high-risk papillomas (benign tumors) that had been chemically induced, as well as normal skin and SCC. The investigators demonstrated that precancerous lesions can be separated into subgroups according to distinct patterns of gene activities