Breast cancer and LMTK3: old disease, new target

摘要

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world, making up 23% of all cancers, with an annual incidence of 1.4 million cases and 465,000 deaths. It is also the leading cause of cancer mortality in females. According to the latest figures from Cancer Research UK, one in eight women in the UK will develop breast cancer during their lifetime [101]. Despite the increasing incidence of breast cancer worldwide over the last three decades, survival rates have improved, mainly due to better awareness leading to earlier diagnosis, and improved treatments, in particular the development of antiestrogens and, more recently, aromatase inhibitors that inhibit estrogen action and thus breast cancer cell growth [l], although the relationship between estrogen and breast cancer is nonlinear and complex.