TY - JOUR
T1 - Oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes in breast cancer
T2 - Potential diagnostic and therapeutic applications
AU - Osborne, Cynthia
AU - Wilson, Paschal
AU - Tripathy, Debu
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2008 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2004
Y1 - 2004
N2 - Carcinogenesis is a multistep process characterized by genetic alterations that influence key cellular pathways involved in growth and development. Oncogenes refer to those genes whose alterations cause gain-of-function effects, while tumor suppressor genes cause loss-of-function effects that contribute to the malignant phenotype. The effects of these alterations are complex due to the high number of changes in a typical case of breast cancer and the interactions of the biological pathways involved. This review focuses on the more common abnormalities in oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes in human breast cancer and their known associations with clinical outcome in terms of tumor classification, prognosis, and response to specific therapies. A better understanding of these relationships has led to new therapeutic applications. Agents that target oncogenes and their associated pathways are now in clinical use, with many more undergoing preclinical and clinical testing. The availability of antibodies, small synthetic molecules, cyotokines, gene therapy techniques, and even natural compounds that are screened for specific biological properties has greatly increased the number of candidate drugs. Nevertheless, clinical successes have been limited because of the redundancy of many cancer-related pathways as well as the high degree of variability in genotype and phenotype among individual tumors. Likewise, strategies to replace tumor suppressor gene functions face numerous technical hurdles. This review summarizes the current achievements and future prospects for the therapeutic targeting of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes and new technology to better classify tumors and accurately predict responses to standard and novel agents.
AB - Carcinogenesis is a multistep process characterized by genetic alterations that influence key cellular pathways involved in growth and development. Oncogenes refer to those genes whose alterations cause gain-of-function effects, while tumor suppressor genes cause loss-of-function effects that contribute to the malignant phenotype. The effects of these alterations are complex due to the high number of changes in a typical case of breast cancer and the interactions of the biological pathways involved. This review focuses on the more common abnormalities in oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes in human breast cancer and their known associations with clinical outcome in terms of tumor classification, prognosis, and response to specific therapies. A better understanding of these relationships has led to new therapeutic applications. Agents that target oncogenes and their associated pathways are now in clinical use, with many more undergoing preclinical and clinical testing. The availability of antibodies, small synthetic molecules, cyotokines, gene therapy techniques, and even natural compounds that are screened for specific biological properties has greatly increased the number of candidate drugs. Nevertheless, clinical successes have been limited because of the redundancy of many cancer-related pathways as well as the high degree of variability in genotype and phenotype among individual tumors. Likewise, strategies to replace tumor suppressor gene functions face numerous technical hurdles. This review summarizes the current achievements and future prospects for the therapeutic targeting of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes and new technology to better classify tumors and accurately predict responses to standard and novel agents.
KW - Biological therapy
KW - Breast cancer
KW - Oncogene
KW - Review
KW - Targeted therapy
KW - Tumor suppressor gene
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=3542995667&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=3542995667&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1634/theoncologist.9-4-361
DO - 10.1634/theoncologist.9-4-361
M3 - Review article
C2 - 15266090
AN - SCOPUS:3542995667
SN - 1083-7159
VL - 9
SP - 361
EP - 377
JO - Oncologist
JF - Oncologist
IS - 4
ER -