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Prognostic markers

Two are worse than one

Nature Reviews Cancer volume 3, page 240 (2003)Cite this article

Osborne et al. examined tumour samples from 316 breast cancer patients with long-term follow-up. In the 187 patients who had received adjuvant tamoxifen, high AIB1 expression was associated with poorer prognosis and shorter disease-free survival (DFS).

ERBB2 signalling through MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) activates both the ER and AIB1, and some studies have indicated that high ERBB2 expression is associated with tamoxifen resistance, so do ERBB2 and AIB1 interact to affect the response of a tumour to tamoxifen? The authors found that untreated patients with high ERBB2, regardless of level of expression of AIB1, had worse prognosis than those with low ERBB2. However, high ERBB2 plus high AIB1 in patients who had received adjuvant tamoxifen was an even worse prognostic factor. DFS in these patients was 42% versus 70% in patients with any other combination of ERBB2 and AIB1 expression.

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References

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Osborne, C. K. et al. Role of the estrogen receptor coactivator AIB1 (SRC-3) and HER-2/neu in tamoxifen resistance in breast cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst 95, 353–361 (2003)

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FURTHER READING

  1. Ali, S. & Coombes, R. C. Endocrine responsive breast cancer and strategies for combating resistance. Nat Rev Cancer 2, 101–112 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

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Authors
  1. Ezzie Hutchinson
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Hutchinson, E. Two are worse than one. Nat Rev Cancer 3, 240 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc1077

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc1077

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