Title:Autophagy as a Potential Therapeutic Target in Breast Cancer Treatment
Volume: 18
Issue: 7
Author(s): Natalia Lisiak*, Ewa Toton and Maria Rybczynska
Affiliation:
- Department of Clinical Chemistry and Molecular Diagnostics, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Przybyszewskiego 49 St, 60-355 Poznan,Poland
Keywords:
Autophagy, breast cancer, targeted therapy, receptors, HDAC, lysosomes, microtubules.
Abstract: One of the crucial reasons of breast cancer therapy failure is an impairment of mechanisms
responsible for metabolism and cellular homeostasis, which makes it difficult to foresee the
response to the treatment. Targeted therapy in breast cancer is dictated by the expression of specific
molecules such as growth factor or hormone receptors. Many types of breast cancer exhibit different
abnormalities in the apoptotic pathway, which confer the resistance to many forms of chemotherapy.
Because of the fundamental importance of autophagy in the development and progression of cancer
and its ability to affect treatment response, there has been an immense research on molecular regulation
and signal transduction mechanisms that control this process. Here, we summarize the present
knowledge concerning different breast cancer treatment strategies using drugs approved for the
treatment of different breast cancer molecular subtypes with targeting pathways and factors associated
with autophagy modulation/ regulation.
