New Culture Technique Could Lead To Drug Discoveries

April 23, 2007 – 12:16 pm | posted in Biology / Biochemistry, Cancer / Oncology

A novel cell culture technique for a noninvasive breast malignancy known as ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) could facilitate the discovery of new drugs to prevent DCIS recurrence or progression.

Gillian Farnie, Ph.D, of the University of Manchester in England, and colleagues developed a novel method to culture DCIS cells, and using this method, they examined the role of the epidermal growth factor receptor and Notch signaling pathways in the growth of DCIS. They found that both pathways were involved in self-renewal of DCIS cells; the former was necessary for DCIS growth, and the latter was important for cell survival.

"To our knowledge, no culture technique for DCIS exists; thus, the nonadherent culture technique that we describe should be useful for isolating tumor-forming epithelial cells from their primary DCIS lesions to allow a better understanding of their growth," the authors write.

Contact: Gillian Farnie, Ph.D, of the University of Manchester

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