J Breast Cancer.  2005 Jun;8(2):4-9. 10.4048/jbc.2005.8.2.4.

Tamoxifen Resistance and Crosstalk of Signal Transduction in Breast Cancer

• Park WC

• KMID: 1573941
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4048/jbc.2005.8.2.4

Abstract

In the hormonal therapy of breast cancer, tamoxifen is currently the standard treatment for estrogen receptor (ER)-positive patients. A response to tamoxifen has been reported in only 2/3 of patients treated with tamoxifen, with the other 1/3 regarded as tamoxifen resistant. In addition, this resistance could play a significant role in the recurrence or metastasis of breast cancer. Overcoming tamoxifen resistance would be an important advance in the conquest of breast cancer. With the recent rapid development of molecular biology, various pathways in signal transduction are known to be related with tamoxifen resistance, and crosstalk between the ER and growth factor receptor (GFR) pathways has been reported as the main mechanism in the development of tamoxifen resistance. In this paper, the crosstalk between the ER and GFR pathways has been summarized with respect to the signal transduction of cancer cells, and this concept could be useful in overcoming tamoxifen resistance due to the blocking of multiple pathways with new targeted agents.

Keyword

Breast cancer; Tamoxifen resistance; Signal transduction; Crosstalk

MeSH Terms

Breast Neoplasms*
Breast*
Estrogens
Humans
Molecular Biology
Neoplasm Metastasis
Recurrence
Signal Transduction*
Tamoxifen*
Estrogens
Tamoxifen