Cancer Res  1989 Jan 15;49(2):357-60 

Incidence of activating ras oncogene mutations associated with primary and
metastatic human breast cancer.

Rochlitz CF, Scott GK, Dodson JM, Liu E, Dollbaum C, Smith HS, Benz CC.

Cancer Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco 94143.

To test the hypothesis that ras activation is involved in the final stages of
breast cancer progression, we analyzed tumor DNA derived from 60 different
patients and extracted from 40 invasive primary breast tumors, seven lymph node
and skin metastases, nine metastatic effusions, and five established breast
cancer cell lines. The polymerase chain reaction technique was used to amplify
DNA fragments containing Kirsten-(Ki-), Harvey-(Ha-), and N-ras codons 12, 13,
and 61 which were then probed on slot-blots with labeled synthetic oligomers to
detect nonconservative single base mutations. Activating mutations were found in
one of 40 primary tumors (Ki-ras codon 13), zero of seven lymph node and skin
metastases, one of nine metastatic effusions (Ki-ras codon 12), and two of five
cell lines (Ki-ras codons 12 and 13). These results indicate that activating ras
mutations are rarely involved in either the initiation or metastatic progression
of human breast cancer.

PMID: 2642738 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]