Daniela F Quail, Logan A Walsh, Guihua Zhang, Scott D Findlay, Juan Moreno, Laura Fung, Amber Ablack, John D Lewis, Susan J Done, David A Hess, Lynne-Marie Postovit
Tumor vascularization is requisite for breast cancer progression, and high microvascular density in tumors is a poor prognostic indicator. Patients bearing breast cancers expressing human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-associated genes similarly exhibit high mortality rates, and the expression of embryonic proteins is associated with tumor progression. Here, we show that Nodal, a hESC-associated protein, promotes breast cancer vascularization. We show that high levels of Nodal are positively correlated with high vascular densities in human breast lesions (P = 0...
August 1, 2012: Cancer Research