Objectives Despite modern treatment regimens, overall survival in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC) is less than 50% due to local and systemic disease recurrency. The current study aims to identify molecular markers in primary tumor specimens that predict the risk for local and systemic recurrency at the time of initial diagnosis. Methods The study included clinic-pathological da...

Abundant bone marrow angiogenesis is present in almost all myeloma patients requiring therapy and correlated to treatment response and survival. We assessed the expression of 402 angiogenesis-associated genes by Affymetrix DNA microarrays in 466 samples, including CD138-purified myeloma cells (MMCs) from 300 previously untreated patients, in vivo microcirculation by dynamic contrast-enhanced ma...

Though benign, giant cell tumor of bone (GCTB) can become aggressive and can exhibit a high mitotic rate, necrosis and rarely vascular invasion and metastasis. GCTB has unique histologic characteristics, a high rate of multinucleated cells, a variable and unpredictable growth potential and uncertain biological behavior. In this study, we sought to identify genes differentially expressed in GCTB...

Extracellular matrix is one of the key environmental factors influencing cell survival and provides signals for cell morphological change, migration, proliferation and differentiation. However, the mechanism through which denatured collagen modulates the biological properties of fibroblasts, is unclear. We investigated the regulation of human fibroblast differentiation in vitro grown in collage...

Multiple cancers exhibit mutations in beta-catenin that lead to increased stability, altered localization or amplified activity. beta-catenin is situated at the junction between the cadherin-mediated cell adhesion and Wnt signaling pathways, and TIMP3 functions to alter beta-catenin signaling. Here we demonstrate that primary mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) and mammary epithelial cells (MECs...

Cancer metastasis is refractory to most forms of chemotherapy. Conventional and alternative drugs, such as Chinese herbal remedies, have been developed to target metastatic cancer cells. In this study, we investigated the effects of PC-SPESII, an herbal formulation, on the migration, invasion, and metastasis of an experimental human breast cancer cell line in vivo and in vitro. PC-SPESII suppre...

Bcl3 is a putative proto-oncogene deregulated in hematopoietic and solid tumors. Studies in cell lines suggest that its oncogenic effects are mediated through the induction of proliferation and inhibition of cell death, yet its role in endogenous solid tumors has not been established. Here, we address the oncogenic effect of Bcl3 in vivo and describe how this Stat3-responsive oncogene promotes ...

BACKGROUND Protein arginine methyltransferases 1 (PRMT1) is over-expressed in a variety of cancers, including lung cancer, and is correlated with a poor prognosis of tumor development. This study aimed to investigate the role of PRMT1 in nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) migration in vitro. METHODS In this study, PRMT1 expression in the NSCLC cell line A549 was silenced using lentiviral vecto...

Bcl3 is a putative proto-oncogene deregulated in hematopoietic and solid tumors. Studies in cell lines suggest that its oncogenic effects are mediated through the induction of proliferation and inhibition of cell death, yet its role in endogenous solid tumors has not been established. Here, we address the oncogenic effect of Bcl3 in vivo and describe how this Stat3-responsive oncogene promotes ...

The processing mechanism and gelatinolytic activity of the membrane-type matrix metalloproteinase 1 (MT-MMP-1) were examined by expressing in COS-1 cells a deletion mutant of MT-MMP-1 lacking the trans-membrane domain (delta MT1) and its site-directed mutant with a furin-resistant sequence in the propeptide domain (mutant delta MT1). delta MT1, but not mutant delta MT1, was processed to an acti...