Breast Cancer Essay

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Breast cancer is a type of cancer originates from breast tissue, generally from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas whereas from ducts are called ductal carcinomas. (Ref: Breast Cancer, National Cancer Institute) Invasive breast cancer is breast cancer that has spread from the point of origin in the breast ducts/lobules to the surrounding normal tissue cells. In exceptional cases, breast cancer can start in at other sites in breast. Breast cancer occurs in both women and men, though male breast cancer is uncommon. Many breast cancers are sensitive to the hormone estrogen. Thus estrogen leads to development of breast cancer tumor formation. Such cancers have cell surface receptors for estrogen. They are called ER-positive cancer or estrogen receptor-positive cancer. Types of Breast Cancer: Breast cancer can be invasive or noninvasive. If the cancer has spread from the milk duct or lobule to other tissues in the breast and leads to the severe tumor formation , it is Invasive Cancer. Noninvasive refers that the cancerous cells have not yet invaded other breast tissue. Noninvasive breast cancer is also termed as "in situ." 1. Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) : Also called intraductal carcinoma, is breast cancer in the lining of the milk ducts that has not yet invaded the surrounding tissues. It may advance to invasive cancer form if remain untreated. 2. Lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) : This type is a marker for an amplified extent of invasive cancer risk in the same or both breasts. Breast cancer can also occur in men. - DCIS - ductal carcinoma in situ - LCIS - lobular carcinoma in situ - Invasive lobular breast cancer... ... middle of paper ... ...ved THr308 sequence in kinase domain. In some organism PDK 2 activates AKT by phosphorylating it at S473 sequence in regulatory domain. Activated ATK further regulates many cellular downstream processes (Fig 2). Regulation of PI 3 Pathway Phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) is a protein encoded by PTEN gene. This protein is involved in the regulation of PI3 K/ AKT pathway. PTEN has dephosphorylation activity, it can remove phosphate group from the protein. In the cell it maintains the level of activated PIP3 by negatively regulating it. At high level of PIP 3 PTEN remove 5’-phosphate group from PIP3 and converts it back to inactivated PIP2 thus lowering the level of PIP3 which activates AKT.(Fig:3) Mutation in PTEN can leads to cancer as it fails to down regulate PIP3 which activates AKT which up regulates cell proliferation and anti-apoptotic mechanisms.

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