Imaging Spontaneous MMTVneu Transgenic Murine Mammary Tumors: Targeting Metabolic Activity Versus Genetic Products

Despite the great strides made in imaging breast cancer (BC) in humans, the current imaging modalities miss up to 30 % of BC, do not distinguish malignant lesions from benign ones, and re-quire histologic examinations for which invasive biopsy must be performed. Annually in the United States, approximately 5.6 million biopsies find benign lesions. More than 50 % of human BCsoverexpress cyclin D1, and all BCs exhibit VPAC1 oncogene products. Together, these gene products may provide an excel-lent biomarker for the early and accurate detection of BC. We have evaluated 4 biologically active peptide analogs that have high affinity for VPAC1. The transgenic MMTVneu mice sponta-neously develop BC and metastatic lesions that overexpress cyclin D1 and VPAC1 biomarkers. The MMTVneu mouse, there-fore, provides an excellent animal model that mimics the patho-genesis of human BC. The objective of this investigation was t