Estrogen receptor beta in cancer: an attractive target for therapy.
2012
While it is well documented that the mitogenic actions of estrogens are critical in the development and progression of human
breast and some gynecologic cancers, only latest data demonstrate a crucial involvement of estrogen-signaling in the carcinogenesis of
non-classical estrogen target tissues, as colon, prostate, lung, skin, and brain. Only recently it has also been found out that the biological
effects of estrogens are mediated by two distinct estrogen receptors (ERs), ERα and ERβ, and that their relative levels in a given cell are
important determinants of response to estradiol and selective estrogen receptor modulators. Indeed, although ERα and ERβ have similar
structure, they produce different effects, and there is currently increasing evidence that, for some tumors, an imbalanced ERβ expression
might play a pivotal role in tumor development and progression. However, the prognostic value, the potential significance in predicting
response to endocrine therapy, and, eventually, the utility of ERβ as a therapeutic target need to be assessed in large-scale and prospective
clinical studies. This review examines the experimental and clinical evidences for a role of ERβ in carcinogenesis of classical and nonclassical
estrogen target tissues. If anomalies of ERβ expression could be demonstrated to represent a critical step in the development and
progression of some types of cancers, its re-expression by genetic engineering, as well as the use of targeted ERβ therapies would constitute
new important therapeutic approaches.
Keywords:
- Correction
- Source
- Cite
- Save
- Machine Reading By IdeaReader
0
References
42
Citations
NaN
KQI