Dr. Nicolae Ghinae will talk about his recent work on a universal tumor marker and its possibilities for detecting and treating tumor growth. The follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) is a key hormone in mammalian reproductive function. In adult humans, the FSH receptor protein is not expressed in most normal tissues except those of the cells of the ovary, the testis and some minimal expression in endothelial cells of blood vessels. Recent work from researchers at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) in France led by Dr. Nicolae Ghinea, found elevated levels of the FSH receptor protein in endothelial cells of tissue samples from a variety of cancer types including prostate, breast, colon, pancreatic, bladder, kidney, lung, liver, stomach, testicular and ovarian, regardless of the type or stage of the growth. By contrast, this receptor is virtually absent in the other normal tissues, including the normal tissue of the organs from which the tumors originated. The FSH receptors appear to accumulate on the blood vessels in the tumor. At TRON, Dr. Ghinae will present methods for the tracking this receptor as a cancer marker and its potential use to target therapies and inhibit tumor growth.
Doctor Ghinea is INSERM Research Director of Unit 955 at Institut Mondor de Recherche Biomédicale (IMRB).