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Drug therapy

Keeping rats in the dark sheds light on tamoxifen resistance

Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology volume 11, page 500 (2014)Cite this article

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New data from a rat model of oestrogen receptor (ER)-positive human breast cancer indicate that exposure to light at night might underlie intrinsic resistance to tamoxifen, which is a common cause of treatment failure in patients with this disease.

Circadian melatonin has been implicated as a negative regulator of breast cancer development and progression, as well as sensitivity to tamoxifen. “Thus, we hypothesized that dim light at night, by blocking the night-time rise of melatonin levels, may promote tamoxifen resistance,” says Steven Hill, who was involved in the new study.

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References

  1. Dauchy, R. T. et al. Circadian and melatonin disruption by exposure to light at night drives intrinsic resistance to tamoxifen therapy in breast cancer. Cancer Res. 74, 1–12 (2014)

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  1. David Killock
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Killock, D. Keeping rats in the dark sheds light on tamoxifen resistance. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 11, 500 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2014.139

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