Radiotherapy and chemotherapy following surgery are mainstays of treatment for breast cancer. Although multiple studies have recently revealed the significance of immune cells as mediators of chemotherapy response in breast cancer, less is known regarding roles for leukocytes as mediating outcomes following radiotherapy. To address this question, we utilized a syngeneic orthotopic murine model ...

Tumor invasion and metastasis are processes poorly understood at the molecular level. Maspin is a serine protease inhibitor (serpin) with tumor-suppressing function in the mammary gland. Maspin gene expression is decreased with malignancy and is lost in metastatic cells. We show in this report that differential expression of maspin in normal and carcinoma-derived mammary epithelial cells is reg...

The p21 cyclin-dependent kinase (cdk) inhibitor is a regulator of the G1-S cell cycle checkpoint. Despite the importance of p21 in cell cycle inhibition, its role as a tumor suppressor is uncertain. p21 mutations are infrequent in human tumors, and p21 null mice exhibit no increased tumor incidence. To ascertain whether p21 could influence tumor formation or progression in the context of other ...

Mitochondria isolated from normal mammary glands taken from lactating and nonlactating C3H mice were compared with those isolated from mammary adenocarcinomas. Functional mitochondria could be obtained from the normal mammary glands only when milk was not present in the tissue prior to homogenization and when bovine serum albumin was added to the isolation medium. Albumin also protected tumor m...

The gene encoding AIB1, an estrogen receptor coactivator, is amplified in a subset of human breast cancers. Here we show that overexpression of AIB1 in transgenic mice (AIB1-tg) leads to mammary hypertrophy, hyperplasia, abnormal postweaning involution, and the development of malignant mammary tumors. Tumors are also increased in other organs, including the pituitary and uterus. AIB1 overexpres...

Thioesterase II, the key enzyme which regulates the production of medium-chain fatty acids by the mammary fatty acid synthetase, is expressed specifically in epithelial cells of the rat mammary gland, regardless of their state of differentiation, and we consider the enzyme to be a reliable marker for this cell type. The objective of this study was to determine whether this enzyme is expressed u...

Clinical correlation studies have clearly shown that obesity is associated with breast cancer risk and patient survival. Although several potential mechanisms linking obesity and cancers have been proposed, the detailed molecular mechanism of obesity-mediated breast tumorigenesis has not yet been critically evaluated. In this study, we evaluated the effects of obesity on mammary tumor initiatio...

Clinical correlation studies have clearly shown that obesity is associated with breast cancer risk and patient survival. Although several potential mechanisms linking obesity and cancers have been proposed, the detailed molecular mechanism of obesity-mediated breast tumorigenesis has not yet been critically evaluated. In this study, we evaluated the effects of obesity on mammary tumor initiatio...

Clinical correlation studies have clearly shown that obesity is associated with breast cancer risk and patient survival. Although several potential mechanisms linking obesity and cancers have been proposed, the detailed molecular mechanism of obesity-mediated breast tumorigenesis has not yet been critically evaluated. In this study, we evaluated the effects of obesity on mammary tumor initiatio...

increasingly recognized. Breast cancer risk increases with the number of menstrual cycles a women experiences [1] and proliferation occurs in the breast epithelium during the luteal phase, when serum progesterone levels are high [2]. Moreover, postmenopausal women on hormone replacement therapy have increased breast cancer risk when taking combined estrogens and progestins but not with estrogen...