Gastric
& Breast Cancer
DOI: 10.2122/gbc.2004.0031
PERSPECTIVE
Carcinogenesis of Breast Cancer:
Advances and Applications
Niki
J. Agnantis, MD, PhD, Michael Fatouros, MD, Ioannis
Arampatzis, MD, Evaggelos Briasoulis, Eleftheria
V. Ignatiadou, MD, Evangelos Paraskevaidis, MD,
and Dimitrios Roukos, MD.
From
the Departments of Pathology (NJA) Surgery (MF,
IA, HB, EVE, DHR), Medical Oncology (EB), and
Gynecology & Obstetrics (EP) at the Ioannina
University School of Medicine, GR –45110, Ioannina,
Greece.
Correspondence to: Dimitrios H. Roukos, MD, Ioannina
University School of Medicine, GR –45110, Ioannina,
Greece, or email:
droukos@cc.uoi.gr
Breast
cancer is the most common malignancy
among women with an increasing incidence
attributable to modern lifestyle and
hormone replacement therapy. Despite
rapid progress in understanding tumorigenesis,
limited is the translation of discovery-based
preventive research into clinical
use.
Germ-line mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2
genes, identified a decade ago, account
for 25% only of familial risk and
research has been focused on searching
the other high- and low-penetrance
genes responsible for the remaining
75%.
Receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) are
subclass of cell-surface growth-factor
receptors. Deregulation of the epidermal
growth factor receptor (EGFR) and
vascular endothelial growth factor
receptor (VEGFR) signaling has a key
role in tumorigenesis and angiogenesis
of human cancers including breast
cancer. The discovery of the HER2
gene revealed that its amplification
is involved in carcinogenesis, led
to the development of target-specific
therapy (monoclonal antibody trastuzumab)
and opened the door for the evaluation
of other RTKs, which may be proven
potential targets for chemoprevention.
Breast carcinoma is biologically heterogeneous.
Genomics and proteomics approaches
such as gene-array, tissue-array,
single-nucleotide-polymorphism analysis
and protein expression will improve
the understanding of molecular mechanisms,
the classification of individuals
into low- and high-risk of cancer
and will facilitate the discovery-based
research for the development of novel
targeted preventive interventions.
Identifying genetic and environmental
factors involved in tumorigenesis
and understanding signaling pathways
appears to be the most rational approach
for breast cancer prevention.
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Online
ISSN : 1109 - 7647
Print ISSN : 1109 - 7655 |
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last
update: 3 February 2004 |
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