title: MicroRNAs in breast cancer initiation and progression.
abstract: The emerging role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in the epigenetic regulation of many cellular processes has become recognized in both basic research and translational medicine as an important way that gene expression can be fine-tuned. Breast cancer is the most frequent cancer in women, with about one million new cases diagnosed each year worldwide. Starting with the early work of miRNA profiling, more effort has now been put on functions of miRNAs in normal mammary stem cells, breast cancer initiating cells and metastatic cells, and therapy-resistant cancer cells. Future translational studies may focus on identifying miRNA signatures as cancer biomarkers and developing miRNA-based targeted therapeutics.
authors.affiliation: The Ben May Department for Cancer Research, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. hliu@uchicago.edu
authors.forename: Huiping
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D019008:Drug Resistance, Neoplasm / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis / Q000235:genetics; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D035683:MicroRNAs