Cancer Principles and Practice of Oncology: Primer of the Molecular Biology of Cancer Second Edition by DeVita Vincent T. Jr. & Lawrence Theodore S. & Rosenberg Steven A

Author:DeVita, Vincent T., Jr. & Lawrence, Theodore S. & Rosenberg, Steven A.
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781496310637
Publisher: LWW
Published: 2015-04-14T16:00:00+00:00

18

Molecular Biology of Breast Cancer

Shaveta Vinayak, Hannah L. Gilmore, and Lyndsay N. Harris

INTRODUCTION

It has been said that cancer is a genetic disease and can be best understood by studying the DNA alterations that lead to the development of cancer. However, a deeper understanding of carcinogenesis requires insight into how these genetic changes alter cellular programs that lead to growth, invasion, and metastasis. This chapter is presented following the logical progression of DNA to RNA to protein, and it describes, at each step, the lesions that contribute to breast cancer carcinogenesis. The chapter also introduces concepts in epigenetics, microRNAs, and gene expression analyses that illustrate how new biologic discoveries and novel technologies have profoundly affected our understanding of breast cancer pathogenesis and influenced the treatment of patients.

GENETICS OF BREAST CANCER

Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease fundamentally caused by the progressive accumulation of genetic aberrations, including point mutations, chromosomal amplifications, deletions, rearrangements, translocations, and duplications.1,2 Germ-line mutations account for only about 10% of all breast cancers, whereas the vast majority of breast cancers appear to occur sporadically and are attributed to somatic genetic alterations (Fig. 18.1).3

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.