Grant: CIHR - ICR / Cancer Research Society Partnership - Research Grants

Despite many advances in the treatment of breast cancer, the recurrence of disease in other parts of the body (called metastasis) remains a significant threat to survival of the patient. A particularly aggressive type, called triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), accounts for 15–20% of all breast cancer diagnoses and has the lowest survival rate, largely due to metastasis. Our lab has developed a way to study this cancer in mice by transplanting a mouse version of TNBC cancer cells into the mammary glands of mice and observing the development of both the primary tumor and its metastasis. Using this model of the human disease, we can study the role of a molecule called prolactin-inducible protein (PIP). We have studied PIP in breast cancer over many years and have shown that it can be used in the clinic to determine that cancer cells in other parts of the body came from a primary tumor in the breast. In our animal model of human disease, we have recently discovered that the presence of PIP in the primary tumor correlates strongly with metastasis to the lung. We now wish to determine any causal relationship in this correlation, that is, to know what it is about PIP that makes it have this effect. We will study this from the perspective of PIP’s action in the primary tumor and metastatic lung as well as the response of other lung cells to the arrival of PIP in their environment. We expect this work will help point to more effective ways to treat TNBC.