Interaction of Steroid Hormones and Oncogene in Breast Cancer

摘要

Breast cancer continues to be a prevailing disease among women in the United States. Though numerous models for breast cancer have been developed, the etiology of the disease remains obscure. Transgenic mice technology has been successfully used to target oncogenes to the mammary glands so that the role of these oncogenes in the development of breast cancer can be better understood. However, the constitutive expression of the oncogene does not allow for the assessment of critical time points at which the mammary glands are most susceptible to oncogenesis. Thus, it is most imperative that an inducible system be established to turn genes on and off, rendering it feasible to define the role of a candidate oncogene in mammary gland oncogenesis.