Retrospective evaluation of serum RAS related nuclear protein (RAN) as a novel, predictive metastasis biomarker for breast cancer

据估计，全球每年新诊断出170万例乳腺癌（BC），在发达国家，约20-30%的患者将在10年内发生转移，这是相当大的疾病负担。转移是指BC扩散到身体的其他部位，是BC患者死亡的最常见原因。目前，还不可能可靠地预测早期BC是否会扩散。问题是没有可靠的诊断测试在早期阶段预测那些有高风险发生转移的患者。虽然转移性BC不能治愈，但这并不意味着它不能治疗。治疗的重点是生命的长度和质量。该项目的结果将能够可靠地预测BC的转移风险，并将患者分为低风险组和高风险组，使临床医生能够在早期阶段为患者制定成本有效的治疗方法，从而提高患者的生活质量。此外，可以很容易地监测转移风险较低的患者，以确定其预测风险的变化。我们的创新方法是开发一种易于使用且价格合理的诊断试剂盒，可以量化血液样本中称为Ran蛋白的新型生物标志物的水平。与正常细胞系和肿瘤组织相比，Ran蛋白在癌细胞系和肿瘤组织中过表达，最近的研究表明Ran蛋白过表达在BC的转移发展中起作用。

An estimated 1.7 million new cases of breast cancer (BC) are diagnosed globally each year and in developed countries around 20-30% of patients will develop metastasis within 10 years, representing considerable disease burden. Metastasis is the spread of BC to other parts of the body and is the most common cause of death of BC sufferers. Currently, it is not possible to reliably predict whether early BC will spread. The problem is that there are no reliable diagnostic tests to predict at an early stage those patients at high risk of developing metastasis. Although metastatic BC cannot be cured this does not mean it cannot be treated. Treatment focuses on length and quality of life. The outcomes of the project will be enable metastatic risk in BC to be reliably predicted and patients stratified into low- and high-risk groups, enabling clinicians to plan at a very early stage a cost effective therapeutic approach for the patient that will improve their quality of life. In addition patients initially with a low risk of metastasis can be readily monitored to identify changes in their predicted risk. Our innovative approach is to develop an easy to use and affordable diagnostic kit that can quantify the level of a novel biomarker called Ran protein in blood samples. Ran protein is overexpressed in cancer cell lines and tumour tissues compared with normal counterparts and recent research has shown that Ran protein overexpression plays a role in the metastatic development of BC.