A number of genes have been identified as putative oncogenes in breast cancer based on expression in breast cancer and correlation with prognosis or as tumor suppressor genes by LOH. A…

The number of genetic alterations seen in breast cancer makes the task of constructing a model of genetic progression daunting. In general, the cUnician pays little attention to…

Recently, we established a new and unique model of early human breast cancer progression. This model, which is called “MCFIOAT”, consists of preneoplastic human breast epithelial cells that are able…

A number of other suppressor genes have been implicated in breast cancer.

Nm23, originally characterized as a metastasis suppressor gene, has been reported to be uniformly expressed in all epithehal cells of benign…

To many, progression of breast cancer and loss of estrogen receptor (ER) are synonymous. The perception is that normal breast tissue is ER*, is growth stimulated by estrogen, and is dependent upon estrogen for growth.…

An increase in expression of enzymes capable of degrading basement membranes and extracellular matrix would be expected to occur in the progression to invasive cancer. This has been observed for cathepsin D (Zhao et…

Angiogenesis is known to be important in metastasis, and microvasculature density, defined as vessels per unit area, has been reported to be a reliable prognostic indicator in early stage breast cancer (Weidner…

Most of what is known about the role of mammary tissue interactions in progression is based on studies with preneoplastic mouse mammary tissues. These lesions require normal mammary stroma for growth and progression to…

The natural history of breast cancer indicates that it develops over years-even decades-and may progress through recognizable stages of proliferative breast disease. Although breast cancers are slow growing,…