The role of bcl-2 expression in breast carcinomas (Review).
The proto-oncogene bcl-2 is demonstrated to block a final common pathway leading to apoptosis and is expressed in more than half of human breast cancers. Invasive breast cancer has reduced bcl-2 immunostaining compared with normal breast epithelia and preinvasive breast lesions. As an inhibitor of apoptosis, bcl-2 should correlate with highly aggressive tumor biology and resistance to hormonal/cytotoxic therapy. However, high bcl-2 expression has been shown to associate with a number of favorable prognostic factors including ER positivity, PgR positivity, low histological grade, well-differentiated tumor, absence of c-erbB-2 and p53. Unexpectedly, numerous studies have shown that tumors with high bcl-2 expression are more responsive to hormone therapy and have more favorable disease-free and overall survival. The clinical significance of bcl-2 in tumorigenesis and prognosis of breast carcinomas from the data recently published are reviewed. Its role in modulation of hormonal/cytotoxic therapy and future directions are also discussed.
Department of Surgery II, Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine, Fukushima 960-1295, Japan.
G J
GJ
Zhang
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I
Kimijima
A
A
Tsuchiya
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R
Abe
D001940:Breast / Q000378:metabolism; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D019254:Genes, bcl-2; D006801:Humans; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D011379:Prognosis; D000090063:Proto-Oncogene Mas; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D016019:Survival Analysis; D016896:Treatment Outcome
C000715470:MAS1 protein, human; D000090063:Proto-Oncogene Mas; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2