Role of Receptors in Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is a major concern and one of the leading causes of cancer-related death worldwide. Breast cancer, like many other types of cancer, is a complex heterogeneous disease controlled by a multitude of genetic and epigenetic alterations. The hormonal status of ER and PR, HER2/neu helps in identifying the non aggressive behavior and patients likely to achieve benefit from endocrine therapy.ER positive primary malignancies of breasts show good response to hormone therapy. Triple-negative (ER-negative, PR-negative, HER2/neu negative) breast cancer has distinct clinical and pathologic features and it have typically high grade, relatively poor prognosis, aggressive behavior and lack of targeted therapies leaving chemotherapy as the mainstay of treatment. Understanding the frequency of occurrence of specific breast cancer subtypes and associated risk factors may elucidate the breast cancer prevention, screening and treatment strategies.