One is based on the reinduction of endogenous NIS expression in thyroid and breast cancer by targeting the main mechanisms involving tumoral transformation and dedifferentiation.
The preincubation of NIS-CHO with IgGs purified from sera of BC with the highest levels of TPOAb and TgAb caused an inhibition of iodine uptake of no more than 5%.
The recent discovery that more than 80% of human breast carcinomas endogenously express NIS protein has opened a very interesting new area of research into the possibility of using radioiodide in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.
Using quantitative real-time RT-PCR, we found that all 22 fresh human breast cancer samples had very low NIS expression similar to levels in untreated MCF-7 breast cancer cells.
One of the most exciting current areas of NIS research-radioiodide treatment of extrathyroidal cancers-was launched by the discovery of functional expression of endogenous NIS in breast cancer and by the ectopic transfer of the NIS gene into otherwise non NIS-expressing cancers.
The rat sodium iodide symporter gene permits more effective radioisotope concentration than the human sodium iodide symporter gene in human and rodent cancer cells.
These results indicate that the mammary gland sodium/iodide symporter may be an essential breast cancer marker and that radioiodide should be studied as a possible option in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.