Abstract
Endocrine therapy, targeting estrogen production or the estrogen receptor, is a crucial component in the treatment of breast cancer. This has been recognized for over a century. Ovarian ablation is the oldest form of endocrine therapy, first used in 1896. This presentation will review: the history of endocrine therapy in the treatment of breast cancer; endocrine strategies in premenopausal and postmenopausal women; data on the use of endocrine therapy in early breast cancer; new directions in the endocrine therapy of metastatic breast cancer; and clinical implications of HER2-neu status and endocrine therapy.
Highlights
The remarkable generation of scores of increasingly sophisticated mouse models of mammary cancer over the past two decades has provided tremendous insights into molecular derangements that can lead to cancer
We report that somatic mutations of p53 in mouse mammary epithelial cells lead to ERα-positive and ERαnegative tumors. p53 inactivation in pre-pubertal/pubertal mice, but not in adult mice, leads to the development of ERα-positive tumors, suggesting that developmental stages influence the availability of ERα-positive tumor origin cells
Genetic alterations commonly observed in human breast cancer including c-myc amplification and Her2/Neu/erbB2 activation were seen in these mouse tumors
Summary
Transgenic Oncogenesis Group, Laboratory of Cell Regulation and Carcinogenesis, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, USA. The remarkable generation of scores of increasingly sophisticated mouse models of mammary cancer over the past two decades has provided tremendous insights into molecular derangements that can lead to cancer. The relationships of these models to human breast cancer, remain problematic. P53 inactivation in pre-pubertal/pubertal mice, but not in adult mice, leads to the development of ERα-positive tumors, suggesting that developmental stages influence the availability of ERα-positive tumor origin cells. These tumors have a high rate of metastasis that is independent of tumor latency. Since it is feasible to isolate ERα-positive epithelial cells from normal mammary glands and tumors, molecular mechanisms underlying ERα-positive and ERα-negative mammary carcinogenesis can be systematically addressed using this model
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