title: Breast cancer prevention: lessons to be learned from mechanisms of early pregnancy-mediated breast cancer protection.
abstract: Pregnancy at early, but not late age, has a strong and life-long protective effect against breast cancer. The expected overall increase in breast cancer incidence demands the development of a pharmaceutical mimicry of early-age pregnancy-mediated protection. Recently, converging results from rodent models and women on molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the protective effect of early-age pregnancy have opened the door for translational studies on pharmacologic prevention against breast cancer. In particular, alterations in Wnt and TGFβ signaling in mammary stem/progenitor cells reveal new potential targets for preventive interventions, and thus might help to significantly reduce the incidence of breast cancer in the future.
authors: Department of Internal Medicine/Clinical Oncology, University Hospital of Basel, Basel, Switzerland. fabienne.meier-abt@usb.ch.
authors: Fabienne
authors: F
authors: Meier-Abt
authors: Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Basel, Switzerland.
authors: Mohamed
authors: M
authors: Bentires-Alj
authors: Department of Internal Medicine/Clinical Oncology, University Hospital of Basel, Basel, Switzerland. University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
authors: Christoph
authors: C
authors: Rochlitz
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000502:physiology*; D012307:Risk Factors