Differential expression of VEGF-A in the brain and lymph node metastases of patients with breast cancer.
Metastasis to the brain is a complication of breast cancer (1, 2) with limited treatment options (3). We mined published microarray data (4, 5) to discover genes associated with brain metastases in patients with metastatic breast cancer. We identified significant differential expression of the gene encoding the vascular endothelial growth factor A, VEGFA, in both the brain metastases and lymph node metastases of patients with breast cancer as compared to primary tumors of the breast. VEGF-A, a molecule described to possess the ability to disrupt the blood-brain barrier (6), may be relevant to the underlying biology by which tumor cells of the breast spread to the lymph nodes and to the brain.