Grant Title: Partnership for the Advancement of Cancer Research: NMSU-FHCRC
Role: Co-Project Leader
U54 CA13238 (Beti Thompson, PhD)

The overarching purpose of this project is to advance our understanding of the influence of novel membrane-associated steroid receptors on breast cancer etiology and progression. While nuclear progesterone receptors (PR) and nuclear estrogen receptors (ER) in relation to breast carcinogenesis have been extensively studied, our focus here is on the contributions of the novel membrane progesterone receptors (MPRα, -β, and -γ) and the membrane estradiol receptor (GPR30) to breast cancer etiology. The aims for the New Mexico State University U54 partnership are as follows:

1. Determine gene expression of MPR, MPR, MPR, and GPR30 using quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) in 440 ILC and 440 IDC breast cancers and according to CHT exposure.
2. Determine protein expression of MPR, GPR30, PR-B, androgen receptor (AR), p44 MAPK, PTEN, c-Src, and Cyclin D1, using immunohistochemistry (IHC) in 1,850 human breast cancers (previously tested for ER, PR, HER2, Ki-67, p27, p21, p53, and e-cadherin) in relation to:
   • histologically-defined lobular and ductal breast cancer.
   • use of combined estrogen and progestin menopausal hormone therapy
3. Determine expression using IHC of CXCL12 and CXCR4 among 1,850 tumors within and between:
   • lobular and ductal breast cancer
   • lymph node negative and lymph node positive breast cancer
4. Identify novel markers and pathways relevant to progesterone exposure and lobular vs. ductal breast cancer risk using genome-wide gene expression arrays in 100 ILC and 100 IDC tumors.