Ao. Univ. Prof. Dr. Christine Brostjan

work address:

Department of Surgery
Anna Spiegel Center of Translational Research
General Hospital AKH 25.05.002, 1090 Vienna, Austria

Phone: +43 (0)1 40400 - 73514

E-Mail: christine.brostjan@meduniwien.ac.at

Homepage: http://www.meduniwien.ac.at/hp/chirurgie/research-laboratories-forschung/groups/brostjan/

Know-how and research interests

Tumor growth and metastasis are supported by the formation of new blood vessels. In the past decades, essential mediators and mechanisms of tumor angiogenesis have been unraveled. Correspondingly, therapeutic agents have been developed to control cancer expansion by inhibiting blood vessel growth. In this context, our research team is focused on

a)   basic aspects of endothelial cell activation by cancer signals to characterize regulatory mechanisms and identify novel therapeutic targets of tumor angiogenesis

b)   clinical parameters of tumor angiogenesis which reflect the prognosis of cancer patients and their response to anti-angiogenic and conventional cancer therapy.

Thus, the know-how of our research team centers around regulators of tumor angiogenesis such as thrombospondin-1, vascular endothelial growth factor, circulating endothelial cells and pro-angiogenic, inflammatory monocyte populations.

Research topic

Regulators of tumor angiogenesis and clinical parameters of anti-angiogenic cancer therapy

Techniques and infrastructure of the research group

The applied methods comprise primary endothelial cell and standard cell culture including cell transfection and transduction techniques. Furthermore, state-of-the art molecular biology methods to characterize the expression of RNA and protein (quantitative RT-PCR, immunoblotting, confocal microscopy etc.) are established in the team. Blood and tissue samples of cancer patients are generally analyzed by flow cytometry, ELISA and immunohistochemistry.

5 selected publications

Starlinger P, Schauer D, Alidzanovic L, Zikeli S, Gebhardt K, Luf F, Fleischmann E, Perisanidis B, Gruenberger B, Gruenberger T, Brostjan C (2012b) Clinical evidence for thrombospondin-1 as a relevant suppressor of liver regeneration. Journal of hepatology in press

Starlinger P, Alidzanovic L, Schauer D, Maier T, Nemeth C, Perisanidis B, Tamandl D, Gruenberger B, Gruenberger T, Brostjan C (2012a) Neoadjuvant bevacizumab persistently inactivates VEGF at the time of surgery despite preoperative cessation. British journal of cancer 107: 961-966

Schauer D, Starlinger P, Reiter C, Jahn N, Zajc P, Buchberger E, Bachleitner-Hofmann T, Bergmann M, Stift A, Gruenberger T, Brostjan C (2012) Intermediate monocytes but not TIE2-expressing monocytes are a sensitive diagnostic indicator for colorectal cancer. PloS one 7: e44450

Starlinger P, Brugger P, Reiter C, Schauer D, Sommerfeldt S, Tamandl D, Kuehrer I, Schoppmann SF, Gnant M, Brostjan C (2011a) Discrimination between circulating endothelial cells and blood cell populations with overlapping phenotype reveals distinct regulation and predictive potential in cancer therapy. Neoplasia 13: 980-990

Starlinger P, Brugger P, Schauer D, Sommerfeldt S, Tamandl D, Kuehrer I, Schoppmann SF, Gnant M, Brostjan C (2011b) Myelosuppression of thrombocytes and monocytes is associated with a lack of synergy between chemotherapy and anti-VEGF treatment. Neoplasia 13: 419-427