The research activities are focused around following aspects of cancer metastasis; biological characterization, detection of micrometastatic tumor cells in blood and bone marrow, and development of new treatment strategies for metastatic cancer. In projec ts on molecular characterization the work will continue on different types of human cancer (sarcomas, malignant melanomas, breast- and colon carcinomas) with special emphasis on the biological function and clinical importance of the metastasis-promoting g ene product S100A4. Furthermore, the project will study molecular factors determining the metastatic capacity of sublines of a human malignant melanoma.
Micrometastatic tumor cells are detected by a patented immunomagnetic technology and several clinical projects involving characterization of the isolated cells, are ongoing. Immunological characterization of cell surface expressed markers by fluorescent latex particles, and expression analysis of intracellular targets are being performed. Of special inte rest is to establish amplification procedures allowing microarray analysis on the small number of cells separated from such samples. This will give the project the possibility to identify genes involved in the metastatic process, or genes of importance fo r predicting prognosis or therapeutic effects.
Development and testing of new treatment strategies include gene therapy, targeted therapy and novel chemotherapeutic agents alone or in combination with conventional treatment modalities.
