Methods and compositions for detection of breast cancer
AssigneeBoard of Regents, The University of Texas System
InventorsHerbert A. Fritsche, Henry M. Kuerer
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Abstract
Systematic comparisons of breast ductal fluid samples obtained by nipple aspiration from women with unilateral breast cancer revealed significant differences in ductal fluid protein expression between the breast with cancer and the breast without cancer in each patient. This study demonstrates that breast ductal fluid contains over 1000 separate protein species and suggests that ductal fluids from breast cancer patients may be useful for high-throughput biomarker discovery.
Claims28
A method for identifying a marker for breast cancer comprising:
- a) collecting a first sample comprising nipple aspiration fluid from a cancerous breast of a cancer patient;
- b) collecting a second sample comprising nipple aspiration from a noncancerous breast of the cancer patient, wherein the first and second samples comprising fluid from cancerous and noncancerous breasts of the same cancer patient constitutes a paired sample;
- c) separating breast fluid proteins within each of the samples by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis;
- and,
- d) comparing the profiles of breast fluid proteins from the first and second samples,
- wherein a difference in the profiles identifies a breast cancer marker.
A method of detecting development or progression of breast cancer in a patient comprising:
- a) collecting a first sample comprising nipple aspiration fluid from a cancerous breast of a cancer patient;
- b) collecting a second sample comprising nipple aspiration from a noncancerous breast of the cancer patient, wherein the first and second samples comprising fluid from the cancerous and noncancerous breasts of the same cancer patient constitutes a paired sample;
- c) separating breast fluid proteins within each of the samples by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis;
- and,
- d) comparing the profiles of breast fluid proteins from the first and second samples, wherein a difference in the profiles identifies a breast cancer marker.
A method for detecting development or progression of breast cancer in a patient comprising:
- a) collecting a blood serum sample from the breast cancer patient;
- b) collecting a nipple aspiration fluid sample from a cancerous breast of the breast cancer patient;
- c) separating blood serum proteins and breast fluid proteins by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis;
- and,
- d) comparing the profile of blood serum proteins with the profile of breast fluid proteins,
- wherein a difference in the profiles identifies a breast cancer marker.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.