UMLS:C0006142 - FACTA Search

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Query: UMLS:C0006142 (breast cancer)
160,383 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Resistance to multiple chemotherapeutic agents is a common clinical problem in the treatment of cancer: such resistance may occur in primary therapy or be acquired during treatment. The most commonly used antineoplastic agents in the treatment of disseminated breast cancer are adriamycin, methotrexate and cyclophosphamide. Cell lines selected for resistance to adriamycin often develop cross-resistance to structurally dissimilar antineoplastic drugs with different mechanisms of cytotoxic action; this phenomenon has been called pleiotropic or multidrug resistance (MDR). In vitro models of MDR have shown that this type of resistance is accompanied by a decrease in cellular drug accumulation, mediated by the over-expression of a 170 kD plasma membrane glycoprotein referred to as P170. Glycoprotein P170 is an energy-dependent multidrug efflux pump, whose activity can be inhibited in vitro by a variety of agents including verapamil, quinidine and reserpine. P170 is over-expressed also in some human malignancies, and evidence exists about its role in examples of clinical resistance in vitro. Clinical trials using verapamil, a calcium channel blocker which selectively enhances drug cytotoxicity in MDR cell lines, have been prompted for leukemia and ovarian cancer. In addition other approaches are the subject of current preclinical investigations. Several observations as well the phenomenon of "atypical" MDR in cell lines which do not overexpress P170, suggest that also other factors are involved in multidrug resistance. Qualitative or quantitative changes in the activity of topoisomerases, protein kinase-related systems and glutathione S-transferase, may confer pleiotropic resistance. As the role of these genes and their regulation is clarified, they may also serve as useful targets for pharmacologic intervention in the treatment of drug-resistant human tumors. The mechanisms involved in resistance to methotrexate and cyclophosphamide are less studied, particularly in vivo samples. Methotrexate resistance is probably a complex multifactorial phenomenon; in some cases it is due to an increase in the expression of the drug target dihydrofolate reductase, often as a result of gene amplification, but in other cases a transport defect of the methotrexate or alterations of the activity of different enzymes have been reported. Cyclophosphamide (CP) resistance has been attributed to an increased activity of two different enzymes, glutathione S-transferase, also involved in MDR phenotype, and aldehyde dehydrogenase, which catalyzes inactivation of CP in non cytotoxic metabolites. This paper reviews the current state of our knowledge of chemo-resistance and the utility of available markers to identify potentially resistant tumors in vivo; the strategies that might be used to overcome this phenomenon are also described.
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PMID:Chemoresistance in breast tumors. 168 Jun 89

Epidemiology has demonstrated that alcoholic beverages are causally related to oropharyngolaryngeal, esophageal, liver, colorectal, and female breast cancer. Among Japanese male alcoholics screened by endoscopy combined with esophageal iodine staining and immunofecal occult blood tests, 4.2% had esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC); 1.2%, oropharyngolaryngeal SCC; 1.4%, stomach adenocarcinoma; 1.9%, colorectal adenocarcinoma. The inactive form of aldehyde dehydrogenase-2 (ALDH2), encoded by the gene ALDH2*1/2*2, which is prevalent in Asians, exposes them to higher levels of acetaldehyde after drinking and was a strong risk factor for these cancers among Japanese heavy drinkers. Inactive ALDH2 was also associated with synchronous and metachronous multiple esophageal cancers. These results suggest a general role of acetaldehyde, an established animal carcinogen, in carcinogenesis of the human alimentary tract. The oropharyngolarynx and esophagus lack ALDH2 activity, suggesting that after exposure to acetaldehyde derived from systemic, mucosal, salivary, or bacterial production or alcoholic beverages, these organs' inefficient degradation of acetaldehyde enhances the chances for local acetaldehyde-associated carcinogenesis. The normal alcohol dehydrogenase-2 (ADH2), encoded by ADH2*1/2*1, is another risk factor for oropharyngolaryngeal and esophageal cancer in Japanese alcoholics. For patients with both normal ADH2 and inactive ALDH2, the risks for oropharyngolaryngeal and esophageal cancer are enhanced in a multiplicative fashion. The responses to a simple questionnaire about both current and past facial flushing after drinking a glass of beer can indicate an individual's ALDH2 phenotype fairly well. Use of this questionnaire to obtain information on ALDH2-associated cancer susceptibility could contribute to the prevention of alcohol-related cancer in Asians.
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PMID:[Alcohol and oropharyngolaryngeal and digestive tract cancer]. 1182 13

Numerous experiments have shown that alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) play a significant role in the metabolism of many biological substances. Some metabolic disorders that can lead to breast carcinogenesis may be the cause of changes in ADH and ALDH activity. In previous experiments we found a changed level of class I ADH activity in breast cancer tissues. The changed level of this enzyme in cancer cells may be reflected by the enzyme's activity in the serum. Therefore, in this study we measured the activity of ADH isoenzymes and ALDH in the sera of patients with breast cancer. Serum samples were taken for routine biochemical investigation from 45 women with breast cancer before treatment. Among all tested classes of ADH isoenzymes, only class I had higher activity in the serum of patients with breast cancer in stage IV. The total ADH and ALDH activities were not significantly higher in patients with breast cancer than in healthy controls. The changes in activity, especially in class I ADH, appear to be caused by isoenzymes being released from the organ damaged by metastatic disease.
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PMID:Activity of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) isoenzymes and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) in the sera of patients with breast cancer. 1672 36

Alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) play a significant role in the metabolism of many biological substances. ADH participates in the metabolism of ethanol, retinoic acid, lipid peroxidation products, leukotriene and glutathione metabolism. ALDH is responsible for oxidation of acetaldehyde and other aldehydes and metabolism of histamine and retinoic acid. The aim of this study was to compare the metabolism in breast cancer cells and normal breast parenchyma by measuring ADH isoenzymes and ALDH activities in these tissues. Total ADH activity was measured by a photometric method with p-nitrosodimethylaniline (NDMA) as a substrate. For the measurement of the activity of ALDH and class I and II isoenzymes of ADH we employed the fluorometric methods, with class-specific fluorogenic substrates. The activity of class III alcohol dehydrogenase was detected by the photometric method with n-octanol and class IV with m-nitrobenzaldehyde as substrates. The samples were taken surgically during resection of breast carcinoma from 75 women. The activity of the class I ADH isoenzyme was significantly lower in breast cancer cells than in healthy tissues. The other tested classes of ADH had a tendency for higher levels of activity in cancer cells than in normal mammary tissue. The activity of total ADH and ALDH was also not significantly lower in the cancer cells. The decrease of activity of class I ADH isoenzyme in breast cancer tissues may be a factor of some disorders in metabolic pathways with participation of these isoenzymes that can lead to carcinogenesis.
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PMID:The activity of class I, II, III and IV alcohol dehydrogenase isoenzymes and aldehyde dehydrogenase in breast cancer. 1682 Sep 97

Disulfiram (DSF), a member of the dithiocarbamate family capable of binding copper and an inhibitor of aldehyde dehydrogenase, is currently being used clinically for the treatment of alcoholism. Recent studies have suggested that DSF may have antitumor and chemosensitizing activities, although the detailed molecular mechanisms remain unclear. Copper has been shown to be essential for tumor angiogenesis processes. Consistently, high serum and tissue levels of copper have been found in many types of human cancers, including breast, prostate, and brain, supporting the idea that copper could be used as a potential tumor-specific target. Here we report that the DSF-copper complex potently inhibits the proteasomal activity in cultured breast cancer MDA-MB-231 and MCF10DCIS.com cells, but not normal, immortalized MCF-10A cells, before induction of apoptotic cancer cell death. Furthermore, MDA-MB-231 cells that contain copper at concentrations similar to those found in patients, when treated with just DSF, undergo proteasome inhibition and apoptosis. In addition, when administered to mice bearing MDA-MB-231 tumor xenografts, DSF significantly inhibited the tumor growth (by 74%), associated with in vivo proteasome inhibition (as measured by decreased levels of tumor tissue proteasome activity and accumulation of ubiquitinated proteins and natural proteasome substrates p27 and Bax) and apoptosis induction (as shown by caspase activation and apoptotic nuclei formation). Our study shows that inhibition of the proteasomal activity can be achieved by targeting tumor cellular copper with the nontoxic compound DSF, resulting in selective apoptosis induction within tumor cells.
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PMID:Disulfiram, a clinically used anti-alcoholism drug and copper-binding agent, induces apoptotic cell death in breast cancer cultures and xenografts via inhibition of the proteasome activity. 1707 63

Application of stem cell biology to breast cancer research has been limited by the lack of simple methods for identification and isolation of normal and malignant stem cells. Utilizing in vitro and in vivo experimental systems, we show that normal and cancer human mammary epithelial cells with increased aldehyde dehydrogenase activity (ALDH) have stem/progenitor properties. These cells contain the subpopulation of normal breast epithelium with the broadest lineage differentiation potential and greatest growth capacity in a xenotransplant model. In breast carcinomas, high ALDH activity identifies the tumorigenic cell fraction, capable of self-renewal and of generating tumors that recapitulate the heterogeneity of the parental tumor. In a series of 577 breast carcinomas, expression of ALDH1 detected by immunostaining correlated with poor prognosis. These findings offer an important new tool for the study of normal and malignant breast stem cells and facilitate the clinical application of stem cell concepts.
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PMID:ALDH1 is a marker of normal and malignant human mammary stem cells and a predictor of poor clinical outcome. 2857 90

Stem cells have now been described in a variety of tissues, even in those where the cells' turn over rate is slow, such as the brain and the resting mammary gland. There is also accumulating evidence that tumors are derived from and are maintained by a rare population of dysregulated stem cells. However, discrepancies in the markers used and reported have slowed down the functional characterization of these somatic stem cells. To circumvent this challenging issue, universal stem cell markers with properties common to all stem cell types must be discovered and exploited. In line with this idea, the measurement of aldehyde dehydrogenase isoform 1 (ALDH1) activity shows promising potential as a universal marker for the identification and isolation of stem cells from multiple sources. Herein, we review the available data reporting utilization of ALDH1 activity as a means to identify and isolate stem cells and cancer stem cells, with a special focus on the mammary gland and breast cancer.
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PMID:ALDH1 as a functional marker of cancer stem and progenitor cells. 1857 38

The cancer stem cell hypothesis proposes that cancers arise in stem/progenitor cells through disregulation of self-renewal pathways generating tumors, which are driven by a component of 'tumor-initiating cells' retaining stem cell properties. The HER2 gene is amplified in 20-30% of human breast cancers and has been implicated in mammary tumorigenesis as well as in mediating aggressive tumor growth and metastasis. We demonstrate that HER2 overexpression drives mammary carcinogenesis, tumor growth and invasion through its effects on normal and malignant mammary stem cells. HER2 overexpression in normal mammary epithelial cells (NMEC) increases the proportion of stem/progenitor cells as demonstrated by in vitro mammosphere assays and the expression of stem cell marker aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) as well as by generation of hyperplastic lesions in humanized fat pads of NOD (nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain)/SCID (severe combined immunodeficient) mice. Overexpression of HER2 in a series of breast carcinoma cell lines increases the ALDH-expressing 'cancer stem cell' population which displays increased expression of stem cell regulatory genes, increased invasion in vitro and increased tumorigenesis in NOD/SCID mice. The effects of HER2 overexpression on breast cancer stem cells are blocked by trastuzumab in sensitive, but not resistant, cell lines, an effect mediated by the PI3-kinase/Akt pathway. These studies provide support for the cancer stem cell hypothesis by suggesting that the effects of HER2 amplification on carcinogenesis, tumorigenesis and invasion may be due to its effects on normal and malignant mammary stem/progenitor cells. Furthermore, the clinical efficacy of trastuzumab may relate to its ability to target the cancer stem cell population in HER2-amplified tumors.
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PMID:HER2 regulates the mammary stem/progenitor cell population driving tumorigenesis and invasion. 1859 32

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have recently been identified in leukaemia and solid tumours; however, the role of CSCs in metastasis remains poorly understood. This dearth of knowledge about CSCs and metastasis is due largely to technical challenges associated with the use of primary human cancer cells in pre-clinical models of metastasis. Therefore, the objective of this study was to develop suitable pre-clinical model systems for studying stem-like cells in breast cancer metastasis, and to test the hypothesis that stem-like cells play a key role in metastatic behaviour. We assessed four different human breast cancer cell lines (MDA-MB-435, MDA-MB-231, MDA-MB-468, MCF-7) for expression of prospective CSC markers CD44/CD24 and CD133, and for functional activity of aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), an enzyme involved in stem cell self-protection. We then used fluorescence-activated cell sorting and functional assays to characterize differences in malignant/metastatic behaviour in vitro (proliferation, colony-forming ability, adhesion, migration, invasion) and in vivo (tumorigenicity and metastasis). Sub-populations of cells demonstrating stem-cell-like characteristics (high expression of CSC markers and/or high ALDH) were identified in all cell lines except MCF-7. When isolated and compared to ALDH(low)CD44(low/-) cells, ALDH(hi)CD44(+)CD24(-) (MDA-MB-231) and ALDH(hi)CD44(+)CD133(+) (MDA-MB-468) cells demonstrated increased growth (P < 0.05), colony formation (P < 0.05), adhesion (P < 0.001), migration (P < 0.001) and invasion (P < 0.001). Furthermore, following tail vein or mammary fat pad injection of NOD/SCID/IL2gamma receptor null mice, ALDH(hi)CD44(+)CD24(-) and ALDH(hi)CD44(+)CD133(+) cells showed enhanced tumorigenicity and metastasis relative to ALDH(low)CD44(low/-) cells (P < 0.05). These novel results suggest that stem-like ALDH(hi)CD44(+)CD24(-) and ALDH(hi)CD44(+)CD133(+) cells may be important mediators of breast cancer metastasis.
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PMID:High aldehyde dehydrogenase and expression of cancer stem cell markers selects for breast cancer cells with enhanced malignant and metastatic ability. 1868 6

Focal adhesion kinase (FAK) has been implicated in the development of cancers, including those of the breast. Nevertheless, the molecular and cellular mechanisms by which FAK promotes mammary tumorigenesis in vivo are not well understood. Here, we show that targeted deletion of FAK in mouse mammary epithelium significantly suppresses mammary tumorigenesis in a well-characterized breast cancer model. Ablation of FAK leads to the depletion of a subset of bipotent cells in the tumor that express both luminal marker keratin 8/18 and basal marker keratin 5. Using mammary stem/progenitor markers, including aldehyde dehydrogenase, CD24, CD29, and CD61, we further revealed that ablation of FAK reduced the pool of cancer stem/progenitor cells in primary tumors of FAK-targeted mice and impaired their self-renewal and migration in vitro. Finally, through transplantation in NOD-SCID mice, we found that cancer stem/progenitor cells isolated from FAK-targeted mice have compromised tumorigenicity and impaired maintenance in vivo. Together, these results show a novel function of FAK in maintaining the mammary cancer stem/progenitor cell population and provide a novel mechanism by which FAK may promote breast cancer development and progression.
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PMID:Mammary epithelial-specific ablation of the focal adhesion kinase suppresses mammary tumorigenesis by affecting mammary cancer stem/progenitor cells. 1914 59

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