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The last thing I’d want to do when visiting the rather lovely looking Lorne (Victoria, Australia) is spend my time talking about cancer (beach please!). Nonetheless, some good folks with more willpower than me managed to do just that at February’s Lorne Cancer Conference–and what a good job they did.

Photo from Mackay lab, MMB Sydney

A couple of posters highlighting work being done on metastasis in breast cancer, the main killer in breast cancer, caught our eye. The mechanism behind BMP4‘s previously shown role as a breast cancer metastasis suppressor was investigated by Yuan Cao and colleagues at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and the University of Melbourne. Cao et al. have continued their work in this field showing that BMP4, a member of the transforming growth factor beta (TGF-ß) superfamily, appears to modulate tumor cells by increasing their sensitivity to anoikis, thereby impacting their ability to colonise at secondary sites. Furthermore, BMP4 suppresses G-CSF secretion which regulates the tumour microenvironment to prevent metastasis.

Meanwhile, Alexander Swarbrick and co-workers. at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney and the University of New South Wales proposed a mechanism by which metastasis of breast cancer is mediated by the Inhibitor of Differentiation 1 (ID1) protein. ID1 protein is over-expressed in aggressive breast tumours and its expression has been previously shown to correlate negatively with disease-free survival of patients (that is, it’s an indicator of poor prognosis). Identifying the polycomb protein BMI1 as being a possible target of ID1, the team demonstrate that BMI1 may serve as a mediator of ID1 function by promoting cell proliferation, self-renewal, metastasis and inhibiting-apoptosis. Swarbrick’s group is now characterizing the genetic pathways regulated by ID1 in the hope they will identify some much needed drug targets for metastatic breast cancer.

Don’t forget to have a look at what else the Lorne Cancer Conference had on offer. Apart from the beach, that is.