The purpose of this study was to identify genes that marks and mediates breast cancer metastasis to the lungs.

A cohort of 82 breast cancer patients treated at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York was used in a univariate Cox proportional hazards model to relate the expression level of each lung metastasis signature gene with clinical outcome.

Subpopulations of MDA-MB-231 that exhibit different metastatic tropisms when injected into immuno-deficient mice. Also, a cohort of primary breast cancers surgically resected at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC).

For the primary breast tumour data, tissues from primary breast cancers were obtained from therapeutic procedures performed as part of routine clinical management. Samples were snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at ?80 °C. Each sample was examined histologically in cryostat sections stained with hematoxylin and eosin. Regions were dissected manually from the frozen block to provide a consistent tumour cell content of greater than 70% in tissues used for analysis.

Minn, Andy J., Gaorav P. Gupta, Peter M. Siegel, Paula D. Bos, Weiping Shu, Dilip D. Giri, Agnes Viale, Adam B. Olshen, William L. Gerald, and Joan Massagué. “Genes That Mediate Breast Cancer Metastasis to Lung.” Nature 436, no. 7050 (July 28, 2005): 518–24. doi:10.1038/nature03799.