Epithelial cell identity in hyperplastic precursors of breast cancer.

CONCLUSIONS: This unexpected finding contradicts the notion that in differentiated luminal cells the expression of estrogen receptor (ER) is dissociated from cell proliferation and suggests that the establishing of an ER-dependent signaling is able to sustain cell proliferation in an autocrine manner as an early event in tumor initiation. Although clinical evidence indicates that only a fraction of HELUs and ADHs evolve to invasive cancer, present findings warn that exposure to synthetic progestins, frequently administered as hormone-replacement therapy, and estrogens, when abnormally produced by adipose cells and persistently present in the stroma surrounding the mammary gland, may cause these hyperplastic lesions. PMID: 25962646 [PubMed - in process]
Source: Chinese Journal of Cancer - Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: Chin J Cancer Source Type: research