title: Estrogen-related cancer microenvironment of breast carcinoma.
abstract: Stromal cells establish the microenvironment based on interaction with tumor cells, which is essential for cancer growth, invasion and metastasis. Fibroblasts are the primary component of stroma, and carcinoma-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) demonstrate tumor-promoting activities compared with normal counterparts. In breast cancers, stromal fibroblasts adjacent to the tumor express aromatase, a key enzyme in the synthesis of estrogen, resulting in in situ estrogen production, and aromatase is a primary target of endocrine therapy. Thus, stromal fibroblasts demonstrate multiple functions in the genesis and progression of breast cancers. In this paper, we discuss the importance of tumor-stromal crosstalk in breast cancers, and describe our system to predict the efficacy of endocrine therapy and to analyze estrogen signals in individual breast cancers.
authors.affiliation: Research Institute for Clinical Oncology, Saitama Cancer Center, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuri
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi
authors.forename: Shin-ichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hayashi
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D004777:Environment; D004967:Estrogens / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009376:Neoplasms, Hormone-Dependent / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000502:physiology; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology; D017154:Stromal Cells / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D004967:Estrogens; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen