MEMORANDUM FOR: Science Writers and Editors on the Journal Press List: New Insight Into Development of Paget’s Disease of the Breast

Extract

April 13, 2000 (EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE 4 P.M. EST April 18)

A protein called heregulin-α, produced by cells in a normal nipple, has been identified as a substance that stimulates breast cancer cells to migrate to the nipple, resulting in Paget’s disease of the breast.

Vera Schelfhout, M.D., and Christian De Potter, M.D., at the N. Goormaghtigh Institute for Pathology, University Hospital, Gent, Belgium, and colleagues, present the results of their research into the movement of these cancer cells in the April 19 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

In Paget’s disease of the breast, which occurs in about 1% of patients with breast cancer, the epidermis of the nipple is invaded by large breast cancer cells coming from an existing breast cancer. The authors sought to identify and characterize the “motility factor” released by normal nipple cells that might be involved in the penetration and migration of breast cancer cells through the nipple epidermis.