Mammary Gland Cancer

Abstract

AbstractIt has been 20 years since the first genetically engineered mouse model of mammary cancer was published (Stewart et al.,) using transgenic technology. Since the first report there have been well over 100 mouse models of mammary cancer developed which have provided critical insights into the functions of numerous genes involved in mammary oncogenesis. Advances in manipulating the mouse genome have provided the technology to induce mammary cancers in mice that arise from genetic mutations that have been identified in human cancer, thus generating models based upon molecular lesions relevant to the human disease. Recent work has focused on validating these models as systems which represent, at least in part, various aspects of the human disease and which may be used for preclinical testing of novel therapies. The challenge remains to establish the predictive value of such models for chemoprevention and therapeutic response for treating human breast cancer.