Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Down regulation of endothelial adhesion molecules in node positive breast cancer: Possible failure of host defence mechanism

2002; Springer Science+Business Media; Volume: 8; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/bf03033721

1532-2807

Maya Madhavan, Priya Srinivas, Elizabeth Abraham, Iqbal Ahmed, N. R. Vijayalekshmi, Prabha Balaram,

Cancer Cells and Metastasis

Endothelial cell adhesion molecules (CAMs) are important in tumorigenesis and host defense mechanism. Their status in breast cancer with regard to nodal invasion is not yet known. Hence we looked at the expression of three important CAMs: VCAM, ICAM and E-selectin. A downregulation of all these CAMs was noted in node positive breast cancer in comparison to node negative cases. This suggests shedding of these molecules in cases with nodal metastasis which might help the tumor cells to escape the host defense mechanism. On multi-variate analysis, VCAM alone emerged as an independent predictor of nodal metastasis.