416-422Breast cancer is a common malignancy in
women all over the world and novel therapeutic approaches are required for the
treatment of patients who become refractory to conventional therapies. Thyroid
cancer is being treated successfully with radioiodine since many years. The
iodide is transported inside the thyroid epithelial cell via sodium iodide
symporter (NIS) which is a trans-membrane protein. The present study was aimed
to explore the uptake of radioiodide (RAI) and the expression of NIS in breast
tissues of invasive ductal carcinoma patients. Breast tissues from tumor region (Tu-Br) as well as
corresponding normal region (N-Br) were collected from patients of invasive
ductal carcinoma. In vitro RAI uptake, its efflux and NIS expression were studied. The uptake of
RAI (1.98±1.75 ´ 105 cpm/g) in Tu-Br was
significantly higher as compared to that observed in N-Br (0.31±0.27 ´ 105 cpm/g) and fast efflux was observed in the tissue
samples. NIS gene expression was positive in 41.66% (10/24) samples of Tu-Br.
None of the N-Br samples expressed NIS gene. In 14 samples of Tu-Br, RAI uptake
as well as NIS expression was studied. In 50%
of these Tu-Br samples RAI uptake as well as of NIS gene expression was positive. The results
indicate that RAI uptake is significantly higher in breast tumor tissues as
compared to their normal counterpart and in future radioiodine may be
an important agent for treatment of breast cancer