Spatiotemporal proteomic analyses during pancreas cancer progression identifies serine/threonine stress kinase 4 (STK4) as a novel candidate biomarker for early stage disease.

Pancreas cancer, or pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, is the deadliest of solid tumors, with a five-year survival rate of <5%. Detection of resectable disease improves survival rates, but access to tissue and other biospecimens that could be used to develop early detection markers is confounded by the insidious nature of pancreas cancer. Mouse models that accurately recapitulate the human condition allow disease tracking from inception to invasion and can therefore be useful for studying early disease stages in which surgical resection is possible. Using a highly faithful mouse model of pancreas cancer in conjunction with a high-density antibody microarray containing ∼2500 antibodies, we interrogated the pancreatic tissue proteome at preinvasive and invasive stages of disease. The goal was to discover early stage tissue markers of pancreas cancer and follow them through histologically defined stages of disease using cohorts of mice lacking overt clinical signs and symptoms and those with end-stage metastatic disease, respectively. A panel of seven up-regulated proteins distinguishing pancreas cancer from normal pancreas was validated, and their levels were assessed in tissues collected at preinvasive, early invasive, and moribund stages of disease. Six of the seven markers also differentiated pancreas cancer from an experimental model of chronic pancreatitis. The levels of serine/threonine stress kinase 4 (STK4) increased between preinvasive and invasive stages, suggesting its potential as a tissue biomarker, and perhaps its involvement in progression from precursor pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia to pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Immunohistochemistry of STK4 at different stages of disease revealed a dynamic expression pattern further implicating it in early tumorigenic events. Immunohistochemistry of a panel of human pancreas cancers confirmed that STK4 levels were increased in tumor epithelia relative to normal tissue. Overall, this integrated approach yielded several tissue markers that could serve as signatures of disease stage, including early (resectable), and therefore clinically meaningful, stages.

Discovery and preliminary confirmation of novel early detection biomarkers for triple-negative breast cancer using preclinical plasma samples from the Women's Health Initiative observational study.

Triple-negative breast cancer is a particularly aggressive and lethal breast cancer subtype that is more likely to be interval-detected rather than screen-detected. The purpose of this study is to discover and initially validate novel early detection biomarkers for triple-negative breast cancer using preclinical samples. Plasma samples collected up to 17 months before diagnosis from 28 triple-negative cases and 28 matched controls from the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study were equally divided into a training set and a test set and interrogated by a customized antibody array. Data were available on 889 antibodies; in the training set, statistically significant differences in case versus control signals were observed for 93 (10.5 %) antibodies at p < 0.05. Of these 93 candidates, 29 were confirmed in the test set at p < 0.05. Areas under the curve for these candidates ranged from 0.58 to 0.79. With specificity set at 98 %, sensitivity ranged from 4 to 68 % with 20 candidates having a sensitivity ≥ 20 % and 6 having a sensitivity ≥ 40 %. In an analysis of KEGG gene sets, the pyrimidine metabolism gene set was upregulated in cases compared to controls (p = 0.004 in the testing set) and the JAK/Stat signaling pathway gene set was downregulated (p = 0.003 in the testing set). Numerous potential early detection biomarkers specific to triple-negative breast cancer in multiple pathways were identified. Further research is required to followup on promising candidates in larger sample sizes and to better understand their potential biologic importance as our understanding of the etiology of triple-negative breast cancer continues to grow.

Cross-species antibody microarray interrogation identifies a 3-protein panel of plasma biomarkers for early diagnosis of pancreas cancer.

PURPOSE: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States, and its incidence is on the rise. Advanced disease is nearly uniformly lethal, emphasizing the need to identify PDA at its earliest stages. To discover early biomarkers of PDA, we evaluated the circulating proteome in murine preinvasive and invasive plasma samples and human prediagnostic and diagnostic samples. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: Using a customized antibody microarray platform containing >4,000 features, we interrogated plasma samples spanning preinvasive and invasive disease from a highly faithful mouse model of PDA. In parallel, we mined prediagnostic plasma from women in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) who would later succumb to PDA together with matched, cancer-free control samples. Samples collected after an establishing diagnosis of PDA were also interrogated to further validate markers. RESULTS: We identified ERBB2 and TNC in our cross-species analyses, and multiple antibodies identified ESR1 in prediagnostic plasma from people that succumb to PDA. This 3-marker panel had an AUC of 0.86 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.76-0.96) for the diagnostic cohort that increased to 0.97 (95% CI, 0.92-1.0) with CA19-9 included. The 3-marker panel also had an AUC of 0.68 (95% CI, 0.58-0.77) for the prediagnostic cohort. CONCLUSIONS: We identified potential disease detection markers in plasma up to 4 years before death from PDA with superior performance to CA19-9. These markers might be especially useful in high-risk cohorts to diagnose early, resectable disease, particularly in patients that do not produce CA19-9.

Restoration of Wnt-7a expression reverses non-small cell lung cancer cellular transformation through frizzled-9-mediated growth inhibition and promotion of cell differentiation.

The Wnt signaling pathway is critical in normal development, and mutation of specific components is frequently observed in carcinomas of diverse origins. However, the potential involvement of this pathway in lung tumorigenesis has not been established. In this study, analysis of multiple Wnt mRNAs in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines and primary lung tumors revealed markedly decreased Wnt-7a expression compared with normal short-term bronchial epithelial cell lines and normal uninvolved lung tissue. Wnt-7a transfection in NSCLC cell lines reversed cellular transformation, decreased anchorage-independent growth, and induced epithelial differentiation as demonstrated by soft agar and three-dimensional cell culture assays in a subset of the NSCLC cell lines. The action of Wnt-7a correlated with expression of the specific Wnt receptor Frizzled-9 (Fzd-9), and transfection of Fzd-9 into a Wnt-7a-insensitive NSCLC cell line established Wnt-7a sensitivity. Moreover, Wnt-7a was present in Fzd-9 immunoprecipitates, indicating a direct interaction of Wnt-7a and Fzd-9. In NSCLC cells, Wnt-7a and Fzd-9 induced both cadherin and Sprouty-4 expression and stimulated the JNK pathway, but not beta-catenin/T cell factor activity. In addition, transfection of gain-of-function JNK strongly inhibited anchorage-independent growth. Thus, this study demonstrates that Wnt-7a and Fzd-9 signaling through activation of the JNK pathway induces cadherin proteins and the receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor Sprouty-4 and represents a novel tumor suppressor pathway in lung cancer that is required for maintenance of epithelial differentiation and inhibition of transformed cell growth in a subset of human NSCLCs.